Hello Birders,
I decided to head south this afternoon and make a few stops along Lake
Champlain. I stopped at Button Bay first, thinking that it may be protected
from the very strong south wind, that was whipping today. There was a flock
of 93 Goldeneyes there and a few Common Mergs. I then headed to Potash
Bay, arriving at 12:45pm. DUCKS were everywhere!!!! The very close
Goldeneyes spotted me as I was pulling in and immediately took off, but
touched back down out in the bay, next to a large raft of Scaup. The sky
began to darken and I knew that I had a limited amount of time before the
snow flurries would commence. I concentrated on the raft of birds. There
were Lesser and Greater Scaup, many of each (identifiable when they would
fly into the wind for new positioning in the front of the raft). I estimated
about 1000 Scaup and 300 Goldeneyes. Common Mergs were with them in
small numbers and at one point I saw two Black Ducks in the flock, as well.
The Goldeneyes began leaving the raft heading toward Oven Bay. It started to
flurry but I was not deterred. I kept panning the group when I noticed five
Goldeneyes just south of the raft. I thought I saw a Barrow's Goldeneye with
them, and as it turned out, I did, I did see a Barrow's Goldeneye with them. I
first noticed the darker back and white spots (this sort of looks to me like a
black ladder with white spots between the rungs). The visability was getting
bad, but I did have just enough time to zoom in and see the telltale cresent at
the base of his bill.
Later in the afternoon, I bumped into Bruce MacPherson at the Burlington
Intervale. We observed a Falcon (possibly a Peregrine, it was too far to
determine) scaring up an entire flock of Starlings, hunting for dinner but did
not have success with that attempt. It landed on the lower of the two large
stacks, stayed there for about a minute, then flew off.
Enjoy Birds,
Jim
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