I made a mad dash to MNWR late today & hurried around the Main Drive. Lots of ducks. Treat was seeing the rich colors of Northern Pintail Ducks.
Also saw: Canadas, RW Blackbirds & Grackles but not as many as I saw flying over our house plus Scaup, Green-winged Teal, A. Black Duck, Mallards (by the dump-truck load, Dave), N. Shoveler, Gadwall, A. Wigeon, Ring-necked Duck, A. Coot, 2 Great Blue Herons, several varieties of shore birds and .... a hovering Rough-legged Hawk (out by the West bend at the new mudflats). No doubt other feathers were out on the pool but I didn't have time to scope more. Oh yes, 1 GBB Gull & 3 Herring Gulls at Benning. At the visitor's center I saw a really comical sight. About 30 shorebirds were scurrying around amidst the ducks when suddenly one of the little guys, with head outstretched, ran straight at the rear end of a Teal & poked it in the tail!! Needless to say, the surprised Teal quickly took several steps forward. Here at home as John was replacing the over-sized roof on the platform feeder, a friendly BC Chickadee, apparently intent on getting to the sunflower seeds, flew so close that it almost flew into him. We have a wretched red squirrel raiding the suet & seeds. He's going to make a fatal mistake some day!!! Fritzie -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
