I drove out to Greenfield today to look for the male Blue-winged Teal that
Tad Finnell had reported earlier in the week. I searched through all of the
ducks and was about to give up when I spotted it out of the water on the far
side
of the pond. As Tad had related, this species really is one of the harbingers
of Spring, and I always look forward to seeing them. Green-winged Teal were
the most common duck there today, with at least 20. Also present were several
Lesser Scaup and Ring-necked ducks, a dozen Gadwall, a pair of Mallards and a
couple of Coots. The water level is down a little exposing some mud flats which
hosted 8 Snipe and a half dozen Killdeer. A lone Tree Swallow made an
appearance over the pond and a pair of Bluebirds were inspecting one of the
bluebird
boxes. Other birds seen included a Redtail, a Kestrel, a singing Eastern
Phoebe and several Meadowlarks in the nearby fields.
I left Greenfield and headed for Carvins Cove but only found 30 Ring-billed
Gulls and a few Crows. From there I stopped by Murray's Pond, which had a
good assortment of ducks including 30+ Ringnecks, a dozen or so Bufflehead, a
few
Lesser Scaup, several Gadwall, a few Mallards, a pair of Black ducks, a male
Redhead, a female Canvasback, a male Hooded Merganser, several GW Teal, 30+
Canada Geese and a single Pied-billed Grebe. A lone Killdeer was feeding along
the edge. The temp. was on the cool side so I sort of expected to find Tree
Swallows working the pond, but I never saw any. Although Murray's Pond has
hosted numerous species of birds over the years, I always associate it with swal
lows. When I first started birding in the early 70's I spent a lot of time
there, before it was surrounded by a subdivision, and I encountered many life
birds
there, including all six species of swallows. But for whatever reason, the
swallows left the biggest impression on me.
Mike Purdy
Roanoke, Va.
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