My March 21 column was planned to remind you how great March is as a waterfowl watching time. I also hoped to add a few more duck photos to my folders and utilize them.
But the weather this year was a bit different. In particular, as of March 14, my go-to spot for adding to my yearly bird list was mostly ice covered. I’m referring to Beltzville Lake. There is one advantage to lake’s ice cover: It limits boat activity and allows migrating ducks to use the lake on their way to northern breeding areas.
But with so much ice, that leaves few areas of open water for waterfowl to rest and feed. And in the case of common loons, grebes and most of the diving ducks, ice causes another problem. If they landed on the ice, they’d be easy pickings for a predator.
You see, the diving ducks, in order to take flight, have to “run” across the surface to take off. The ice cover would ground them. Puddle ducks, such as mallards, are able to “explode” right from the water surface.
I looked back at my annual bird log since 2018, and over that time I’ve logged an average 20 waterfowl species by March 15. This year, by March 15, I’ve only been able to find 11. My guess is that when the ice melts much of the waterfowl migration time may be over and my birding buddies and I will have a much smaller list this year.
So, I modified my approach and I have stopped by a few family and farm ponds and was able to see a few species there. Backyard pond watching is something we all can do easily. Many of these are found off major roadways, making it safer for you, and less distractions to startle the waterfowl.
This year at an East Penn Township farm I was lucky. Always uncommon in our area, and certainly very rare on a small pond, I found a lone tundra swan. It seemed at ease gliding along with about a dozen mallard ducks, a bunch of Canada geese, and also quite rare, a pair of redheads (ducks).
I’ll keep checking this and some other ponds hoping for some good bird sightings.
Grab your binoculars, take along a good bird field guide and check out some of our local waterways since this is “waterfowl time.”
Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: The bufflehead, a diving duck about 13 or 14 inches in size, nests in northern and western Canada. They are commonly found on lakes in our area in winter. They rely on northern flickers because: A. they follow the flicker’s migration northward; B. they utilize the flicker’s unused nesting holes for their nests; C. the flickers inadvertently lead them to the same food.
Last Week’s Trivia Answer: The ferns that retain their green color throughout the winter are Christmas ferns.
Email Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com
Relying on checking some ponds for waterfowl got me some good results. This lone tundra swan chose an East Penn Township pond to rest for a few days. Friday the 13th brought me luck to find one there. BARRY REED/SPECIAL TO THE TIMES NEWS
Predictable? You bet. Last year, this flock of tundra swans rested on Beltzville Lake on March 15. If you keep a bird log, you’ll soon be able to predict almost to the day when species will arrive back in our area each year.
Mallard ducks are classified as dabblers (those that tip over to feed on the bottom of shallow waterways). They are also called puddle ducks. Their legs are located more forward than diving ducks and they can quickly take flight right from the water’s surface. They also can walk better on the ice or shore because of their foot position on their bodies.
Another dabbling duck is the northern pintail (males and females in photo). These beautiful birds are not very common here, but you could find them on a farm pond or even a submerged cornfield after a few days of rain.
The diminutive buffleheads are a regular visitor to our local lakes. They are a type of diving duck swimming as much as 30 to 40 feet deep to get crustaceans and insect larva. Their courtship behaviors are really fun to watch as they sputter back and forth doing their best to impress potential mates.
A beautiful male horned grebe graced the waters of Beltzville a few years ago. They are also diving ducks feeding on small fish (minnows). They are great swimmers but terrible at walking on the ice or shore, with legs set far back on their bodies to facilitate swimming, not walking.
Also a diving waterfowl, the common loon will make stops at any of our local lakes when the ice clears. Every now and then one is found on a wet section of roadway after mistakenly landing there in the dark thinking it was a waterway surface. They would be stranded there with legs set too far back and would need to be placed on a lake in order to regain flight.
The small pied-billed grebe, like its cousin the horned grebe, is a great diver. Sometimes they are submerged for more than 30 seconds chasing small fish.
Joining the tundra swan on that East Penn Township pond was a pair of redheads. These ducks normally form large rafts (flocks) on bays and larger lakes. Did the still ice covered lakes send them to any open water to feed? My guess, yes.
Not very common here, blue-winged teal just might be found on ponds in the next few weeks, just like swans and the redheads. I have seen them at a number of Carbon County locations the past few years, but usually only a single bird at a time.
With Beltzville frozen, I found some open water on the Parryville Dam, where I found a few black ducks. The shallow water there is ideal for these dabbling ducks.
Most are familiar with the gorgeous plumage of a male wood duck. I thought I’d show you how to identify the female. Wood ducks are dabblers, and like hooded mergansers, common mergansers and buffleheads, they nest in tree cavities.
Just to remind you how dabblers feed: This is a Canada goose, but they and mallards, black ducks and pintails like shallower water to simply tip over and feed on plants or small crustaceans.