On March 31 I was surprised to see a female
hooded merganser leave one of the boxes I put up
for wood ducks at my oxbow pond along the
Mattaponi River in upper King William County
(Beulahville). Curiosity drove me to investigate.
I could not see into the box (it was too high)
but when I opened the door I could feel a warm
egg inside a nicely-feathered nest among the wood
shavings. There might have been more, but I
could barely reach that one. Another female
hoodie and at least 6 (maybe 10) wood ducks were
also in the area. No male hoodies were around
but there had been 2-3 here all winter.
Cornell's Birds of North America says the males
generally leave soon after incubation starts. I
am eager to see how many chicks of what kinds
fledge here (in about a month?). There are plenty
of natural cavities in this old floodplain forest
but I need to put up more boxes for next year.
I did not detect prothonotary warbler or
louisiana waterthrush here yet or at Peedee Creek
in Leedstown (Westmoreland Co) but
yellow-throated warblers have returned to Peedee
Creek and pine warblers and chipping sparrows are
singing everywhere. At dusk, as the crescent
moon brightened and the sky darkened over
Beulahville, I was treated to a wonderful chorus
of squealing and squeaking wood ducks,
monkey-calling barred owls, and scores of frogs
(pickerel, spring peepers, s. leopard,
carpenter).
Other brief stops along the way:
At King George ponds (route 3) there were not
large numbers of anything but there were
red-breasted and common mergansers, ring-necked
ducks, lesser scaup, pied-billed grebe, american
coot, green-winged teal, bufflehead and the
tinkling songs of horned larks. Rough-winged
swallows were investigating holes in the sand
banks but no bank swallows were back yet. At
Washington's Birthplace (Westmoreland County) the
tundra swans were gone, leaving 11 mute swans
behind (too many). 40 gadwalls and several
ring-necked ducks were also there as were
yellow-throated warblers. In the Potomac River
off of Muse Rd (Maryland waters) there were
red-throated and common loons, 1200 scaup (too
far out to ID), 20 black scoter, 25 surf scoter,
100 bufflehead, and a horned grebe in crisp
breeding plumage, but no goldeneyes. About 15
gannets were diving a few hundred yards offshore,
brilliant white and black in the sunlight. In
Singerly (Richmond Co) a few buffleheads and
snipe were at the pond along route 624. In
Tappahannock (Essex Co)at the bridge there were
80 cormorants and 5 royal terns, one of which had
a band on its leg. Only 1 kestrel was seen in
all that driving, in Upper King and Queen County.
All the best
Fred
Frederick D. Atwood fredatwood@xxxxxxxxx
Flint Hill School, 10409 Academic Dr, Oakton, VA 22124
703-242-1675
http://www.agpix.com/fredatwood
http://www.flinthill.org
http://tea.armadaproject.org/tea_atwoodfrontpage.html
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