Thanks for your interesting and detailed observations.  I always enjoy your accounts of what you see and what those things might indicate in the big scheme of things.  I once visited the same WMA (Carter Lake in Washington county, NY) once a week for a year.  I have no records since it was prior my becoming a bird lister, but I learned so much during that year of visits in watching the change of the seasons.  I saw the birds and ducks arrive, raise their young, and move on; I enjoyed the wildflowers and the shrubs as they blossomed and fruited.  Even the change in the angle of the sun and the sound of the wind at different times of year become more apparent when you spend a significant amount of time observing one place.  It is a great way to hone your skills.  Thanks for the reminder, Roy.
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Mona Bearor
South Glens Falls, NY 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Roy Pilcher 
  To: [log in to unmask] 
  Sent: Wednesday, November 06, 2002 7:48 PM
  Subject: Lake Bomoseen, Hubbardton, State IBA


  Observations, Tuesday, November 5, 2002

  Canada goose (58), mallard (31), American black duck (33), ring-necked duck
  (~165), hooded merganser (48), ring-billed gull (2), shorebird species (2).

  As an isolated list out of context, these observations warrant not much more
  than the delete key!  However, when viewed as an element in a continuum of
  monthly data over a period of five years, the raw numbers take on an added
  significance and interest.  Consider the Canada goose observation for a
  starter, there is a consistency in occurrence here that the raw number does
  not expose, since their absence is noted only four times during the five year
  observation period. The black duck/mallard totals range as high as 79 on
  11/3/2000 to consistent lows each May, 4 on 5/1/1998, 9 on 5/1/2001 and 6 on
  5/3/2002, while in each case the earlier, March and/or April number is
  higher.  What is at work here?  Are these wetlands thawing earlier and thus
  providing a food base before surrounding areas can be exploited?  Then there
  are the ring-necked ducks whose numbers generally peak in April and then
  again in November, 62 on 11/21/98, 127 on 4/15/2000, 22 on 4/19/2001, 164 on
  4/4/2002 and 165 on 11/5/2002.  For the other eight of or nine months they
  are absent, classic migrants using these wetlands as a stopover whether going
  north or south.  Finally the hooded mergansers which seem to peak also during
  November, 63 on 11/21/1998, 22 on 11/11/1999, 29 on 11/3/2000 and 22 on
  12/3/2001 (the exception) and 48 on 11/5/2002.  Except for a few sightings in
  early spring they are unreported and apparently not present.
  To be sure all of this may add little to our collective knowledge and
  understanding but I would suggest that if one has the opportunity to take a
  particular area, it could be your own backyard, a favorite walk, a pond,
  whatever, and visit and monitor the bird activity there consistently over a
  period of time, then you will be rewarded with an added appreciation of the
  rhythms of the seasons and the manner in which the birds both exploit them,
  and at the same time, are governed by them.

  Cheers,
  Roy Pilcher,
  Proctor, Vermont

  Speaking the Same Language.