Today, staff intern Karen Beatty and I conducted impoundment and
beach surveys at Back Bay NWR. As I arrived at the refuge at sunrise
there was a Red-Necked Grebe in the impoundment across from the
Visitor's Center. The impoundments collectively held the best show of
dabbling ducks we've seen this winter at the refuge. Earlier surveys had
found most of the ducks in the bay and not in the impoundments. Most
species were well represented including about a dozen Blue-winged Teal
and a male Eurasian Wigeon among the American Wigeon. A couple of adult
White Ibis were flushed when one of several Bald Eagles flew low over
the impoundment.
On the beach we had two Piping Plovers, the first of the year. A
lot of detritus (fish, crabs, shellfish) had washed up on the beach,
probably from recent storms. It attracted a goodly number of gulls and
six Bald Eagles. Two Royal Terns, the only terns observed, flew past
heading down the beach. Offshore there were good numbers of Northern
Gannets extremely close to shore, as well as many Red-breasted
Mergansers, Double-crested Cormorants, several dozen scoters of all
three species, a couple of Horned Grebes, and one Common Loon in an
intermediate plumage. Sanderlings were the only other shorebird tallied.
One of the dikes below the Visitor's Center will be opened to
hiking beginning April 1, and that's no fooling.
Bob Ake
Norfolk VA
