With snow forecast for the entire day, a friend and I visited Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area this morning. There we encountered light snow and thousands of ducks.
Northern shovelers were most abundant, joined by large numbers of gadwall, American coot, mallards and green-winged teal; a small number of lesser scaup, hooded mergansers and common goldeneyes were also present. While no migrant geese were observed, about 180 American white pelicans graced the floodplain, huddled on sandbars in the shallow pools.
As usual, bald eagles and red-tailed hawks patrolled the refuge and a belted kingfisher noisily hunted along the central channel. Six great blue herons stalked the chilly shallows and a few dozen Canada geese, already paired off for the season, claimed their nesting sites in the wetlands. Spring is surging and a day of snow will not slow its progress.
