A bit of snow on top of the previous night's rain wasn't inviting, but I decided to do a quick check of Fletcher Wildlife Gardens, Chapman Mills and Sawmill Creek Ponds
The pond at Fletcher was wide open, no ice
Fresh tracks in the fresh snow: Small birds on the pond bridge, rabbit on one of the trails, wild turkeys on another trail (I have never seen wild turkeys at Fletcher)
I didn't see any owls , but a cooper's hawk seemed quite anxious. It was flying in circles directly above me, landing in trees and then taking off. After about 20 minutes it moved on.
The bird feeder was empty but juncos, song sparrows and white-throated sparrows (see video) were combing the ground for seeds.
A few male red-winged blackbirds were practising their trills
I didn't do the entire trail/boardwalk at Chapman Mills as I've never seen much of note there.
I did find a tiny nest that might have been a hummingbird or perhaps a wren's nest.
I headed over the Sawmill Creek Ponds to see if the pussy willows were out yet - they were
Nearby in the brown vegetation of spring -
Milkweed seed pods, Queen Anne's Lace fully open and black locust seed pods
A song sparrow was singing overhead
I was going to head back home, but I walked along a bit further. I noticed some dots on the water up head.
They were ducks, and ducks we usually only see at migration times: Hooded mergansers, a bufflehead, common mergansers (The male usually move on, the females stay) and ring-billed ducks (that I had only ever seen in Florida).
The ducks were a distance away, so the photos aren't great (the videos are slightly better) so we'll call them "record observations"
Hooded Merganser
Bufflehead
I didn't "see" the bufflehead while I was there. I found it in my photos when I got home. I had been working the hooded merganser, above left, turned my head to check something and then turned back and kept shooting what I thought was the same hooded merganser.
Ring-necked Ducks
(I've never seen the ring on their necks, but I have observed the ring on their beaks, so I sometimes mistakenly call them ringed bill ducks)
Common merganser
As mentioned above, the males (white and black, red beak) seem to be only around during the early spring
There were a very few mallards to be seen. A pair was by the outlet of the ponds. Six to eight feet below me. You are "supposed" to take photos down at their level, but being above them gives you a good chance to see the feather patterns on their backs.
A muskrat swam by amd disappeared into the reeds
The seeds on the smooth sumac are very loosely arranged compared to the staghorn sumac. Smooth sumac photo (left) from this visit, staghorn photo from last July.
