American Wigeon.
Photo by Bryan Henson

Eight birders embarked on a multi-stop winter waterfowl field trip on February 2.  The first stop, Middlesex Drive Pond, was mostly frozen over, but still produced a few species of waterfowl, most notably a single Green-winged Teal.  We also found a couple of Wilson’s Snipe hiding behind some grasses in the pond.  The second stop at Reservoir Park, was also mostly frozen over.  Spotting scopes were required to make sense of the distant ducks sitting in the small pools of open water.  We found Hooded Mergansers, Ring-necked Ducks, Common Mergansers, Ruddy Ducks, Gadwall, American Black Ducks and Northern Pintails along with a few hunting Bald Eagles.  Our final stop was Meadowbrook Farm Ponds.  These ponds provided us much closer views of several ducks.  New species we spotted here included Redhead, Lesser Scaup, Greater Scaup and American Wigeon. Among the three stops, we found 15 species of waterfowl.  The full trip report can be seen on eBird at https://ebird.org/tripreport/326985.

Green-winged Teal.
Photo by Bryan Henson

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