When I left my house yesterday morning, I was a little peeved to see it was still cloudy. But by 9:00a I was going blind! I hadn't seen the sun in like 4 days, and my bedroom is in the basement. When the sun came out I started sneezing, eyes watering and closing... but it felt great!
I had just gotten home when Tina Green called me to say she had found a Eurasian Wigeon in the 'warehouse pool' at the Great Meadows unit of the McKinney refuge in Stratford. I didn't see any last year, so I jumped on this one... also since I didn't go see one that was in Stratford this winter. Tina also let me know that the Northern Shoveler were still present as well.
I got down there, first day in a t-shirt and shorts, and was excited to score 4 first-of-year birds. In addition, birds were singing and Spring was showing itself. A phoebe worked the edge of the pond, Tree swallows flew by in pairs a couple times (Tina also had a NRW swallow), Swamp sparrows were looking nice and rusty, the Boat-tails were singing as loud as possible, Mute swans on their nest and bonding, Yellowlegs calling as it flew overhead, Killdeer calling from somewhere....
My 4 FOYs were Greater yellowlegs, Northern Shovelor, Eurasian Wigeon, and Great egret. Tina was awaiting Sara Zagorski's arrival when I got there, then Charlie Barnard came too. The 4 of us walked the railroad trail in hopes of Blue-winged teals (which were the other way!!), enjoyed the wigeon, and took in some sun.
It was a very nice day to be out, and nice to see my first EUWI since '08. Thanks, Tina! The Trumpeter swans took advantage of the great weather and took to the wing yesterday. I was thinking that may happen. All in all, it has been a sweet way to end the monsoon season and bring in April.
Lapwing, anyone??? ;)
The true winter wren is a challenge to find
4 days ago
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