A small hole in the ice in the pond at Hedgehog Mountain Park has finally opened up, and yesterday, it hosted a dapper pair of Wood Ducks and 5 Hooded Mergansers. Hoping for more duck-watching opportunities, I set out this morning on a tour of some of my local waterfowl patches.

I began at Florida Lake, which is just now starting to open up as well. 6 Hooded Mergansers and one Common Goldeneye were present. A Great Blue Heron stalked the shore. Driving north – with some huge flocks of Common Grackles on the way, I checked Lisbon Falls, which was duckless, and a few stops along the Androscoggin River as I headed back east.

The mouth of the Abagadasset in Bowdoinham was still frozen solid, but open water at the Andros Mill on the Brunswick/Topsham border hosted 31 Common Mergansers, 2 Hooded Mergansers, and a single drake Ring-necked Duck. Wharton Point in Brunswick was my next stop, and definitely my most productive of the day. 400+ American Black Ducks, 200+ Red-breasted Mergansers, 100+ Canada Geese, 50+ Bufflehead, about 20 Mallards, and 3 Common Goldeneye were joined by 14 Greater Scaup, my first of the spring. 5 Great Blue Herons huddled in a sheltered corner, avoiding the day’s strong northerly wind as much as possible.

Finally this morning, I checked the South Freeport Town Landing and Winslow Park, looking to see if any Barrow’s Goldeneyes were still around. There were some very distant Goldeneyes upriver from the town landing, but the combination of heat shimmer, scope shake, and really choppy water made them impossible to identify (even if conditions were perfect, these birds were probably too far away to ID).

So before, the next wave of spring migrants arrive, can I suggest and/or request that you take a moment to help protect them? It is estimated that between 5 and 50 million migratory birds are killed each year due to collisions with lighted communication towers. We don’t know why, but nocturnal migrants can become disorientated by the lights on tall towers and fly around them until they collide with something, or even drop dead from exhaustion. (Read more about the issue from the American Bird Conservancy) The US Fish and Wildlife Service recently came up with a list of recommended guidelines to reduce the potential for avian mortality – without jeopardizing airplane safety, of course. Now, the Federal Communications Commission is considering whether or not it should address the birdstrike issue (such as by adopting the FWS guidelines). Currently, the FCC is requesting public comment on whether or not it should do anything. Read more about the FCC request, and follow the instructions for submitting comments, at www.towerkill.com. A few minutes of your time to write the FCC to tell them that you think they should be protecting birds could help to save MILLIONS of migrants!