Lots of black and white…

Well, the snow I had expected did not arrive this morning, mostly because I was checking the forecast for Shorewood instead of for Cheshire, where I am presently located. Thus, it was no problem for my sister and me to go out looking for wildlife today, and this time, we really did go looking for waterfowl.

We checked Broad Brook Reservoir first, which has been very fruitful in the past, and we were quite surprised to find it still completely frozen over. The next stop was Hannover Pond, and there we finally found some open water. Beside the mute swans, Canada geese, and mallards, I was happy to find common mergansers, which my sister did not remember seeing before. There were at least four hens and four drakes, and here’s one of the latter.

The big surprise, for me at least, was spotting this handsome devil standing on the ice amongst the ring-billed and herring gulls. For those of you who don’t remember, or who were not yet along for the ride, this is an aptly-named black-backed gull, similar to the one we saw in South Holland, a couple of years ago, but this one is a “great” (Larus marinus), while the Dutch one was a “lesser” (Larus fuscus).

Another treat was spotting this quartet of hooded mergansers, which we have yet to see in Estabrook this winter. The three drakes were all doing their best to impress the hen, but nothing seemed to be working today. Maybe it’s just too early in the year. “Don’t give up hope yet, guys!”

My sister was especially thrilled to find a bald eagle, who looked a little wet. It soon flew off, and Deb tracked it to a tree not too far off where another eagle was perched. Perhaps they are the pair that nest over at the reservoir, and they had just come to the pond to check the open water buffet.

The next big surprise was finding this gadwall drake on the Quinnipiac River, which flows out of the pond toward New Haven harbor. We’ve seen at least one drake in Estabrook over the winter, but this is my first Connecticut gadwall. Woo Hoo!

Finally, we took a peek at the little pond in the old Farmington Canal, which I thought might also have some open water. It did, and there was one goose and a dozen mallards taking advantage of it, but the bigger surprise was spotting at least 60 (yes, 5 full dozen!) black vultures nearby in the trees, on the ground, and even bathing in what is left of the Farmington Canal. They are large birds, so it was quite the show. Here’s one who had just hopped up onto a branch at about eye-level to start drying off. Doesn’t it have a beautiful brown eye?

I’m not sure what our schedule is for tomorrow, so I don’t know when I’ll get out to look for more, but I’ll do my best.