We were once again on the “warm” side of a quick-moving low on Saturday, which produced a mostly rain event. Despite fog, wind, and steady, light rain with temperatures in the mid-30’s, two hardy, Gore-Tex clad souls made it out for our store’s Saturday morning birdwalk. Given the weather, we decided to have more of a bird-drive than a bird-walk, heading south to Cape Elizabeth for some seawatching, and then working our way up the coast, checking for sheltered coves. 8 Dovekies, 4 Razorbills, and 3 Iceland Gulls later, no one was complaining about the weather!

Plus, upon returning to the store, we enjoyed 3 Bohemian Waxwings within a flock of 75+ Cedar Waxwings feeding on fruit in and around our garden. (A more complete summary is on our website, as usual). That flock was ravaging the crabapples at the Rite-Aid next to us later in the afternoon. Meanwhile, that same walk with Sasha produced a flock of 150+ Waxwings, roughly evenly split between the two species, over at Royal River Park. It seems that at least some of the waxwings from Freeport have moved down the road! And, that flock continues to frequent the vicinity of the store through Monday morning.

Temperatures were once again above normal (the high was 40!) with light winds, which made for a very pleasant day as Ed, Doug, and I spent the day tallying chickadees for the Brunswick-Freeport Christmas Bird Count. This is the territory that Jeannette and I have covered for the last 5 years. It is the western-most crescent of the count circle, which includes all of Freeport west of I-295, plus the northern corner of Yarmouth and the easternmost edge of Pownal (including, just barely, our yard). My routine here involves A LOT of walking (about 8 miles per person), as we leapfrog with a car to walk just about all of the roads in the territory. (The thought of getting out early before daybreak for some owling was squashed by the damn NY "Tennants" making a real game out of it against the Patriots Saturday night!)

The only open water (at least in some years, but there was very little open water here this year) is mouth of Pratt’s Book and the beginning of the Cousin’s River, but the rest of the territory is woods, fields, and yards. Although our section rarely gets the diversity of species that the other territories (which include extensive shoreline), we are often treated to great numbers of the common “yard” birds (due to our thoroughness), good winter finch potential, and always a surprise or two. This year, we were not disappointed, as highlights included a total of 46 Pine Grosbeaks in 9 different groups of 1 to 11 birds, two different groups of Bohemian Waxwings (one of 10, and the other of 15), a single fly-over Evening Grosbeak, 3 different Northern Shrikes (very exciting! I have now already seen 13 this season!), two Ruffed Grouse eating buds in a tree, 9 Common Redpolls, and a whopping 385 Black-capped Chickadees!

A female Pine Grosbeak snacking on crabapples.

Four fresh inches of fluffy snow fell between yesterday afternoon and late in the evening, which meant my plans to bird Cape Elizabeth this morning were thwarted by the need to spend the first hour of the day snowblowing the driveway, once again. So, instead of heading to Cape E, I stayed local, birding in Freeport and Yarmouth, which has been very productive of late. And today, my outing shattered expectations, producing some great birds and some great numbers of great birds!

The LL Bean Headquarters and the Freeport Plaza still had a little fruit left on the trees, but both locations were frugivore-less this morning. Then, it was on to the South Freeport Town landing, which is the more reliable location for Barrow’s Goldeneye at low tide when there’s little ice in the river. And, the warm – above normal, actually – temperatures over the last few days has broken up what ice had formed to date on the Harraseeket. And, as expected, with little ice on the river, most of the birds were well up stream at dead low this morning, including 2 drake Barrow’s Goldeneye.

I then headed for Winslow Park, with two flocks of frugivores distracting me on my way. The first was just up Pine Street from the town landing, where I enjoyed close views of a flock of 75+ American Robins, 50+ Cedar Waxwings, and about 15 Bohemian Waxwings feasting on a crabapple in a front yard. Then, along South Freeport Rd, I spotted a flock of 150+ Bohemians, with 25+ Cedars mixed in, roosting in a tree at the edge of the field.

Finally arriving at Winslow, I found 18 Purple Sandpipers and a lone Dunlin off of the point, but ducks were few and far between thanks to some gunners on an island offshore. Meanwhile, seven Hooded Mergansers were in the Cousin’s River behind the Muddy Rudder restaurant, and 4 more were off of the Lower Falls Landing on the Royal River in Yarmouth.

But, it was the waters off of Sandy Point Beach on Cousin’s Island that stole the show this morning. For one thing, I had planned on making an effort this winter to fill in a couple of seaduck holes one my Sandy Point Patch list. Secondly, a female Harlequin Duck was found here earlier this week, which would make a great and unexpected bonus bird for the patch list. Thirdly, the early winter duck (especially Common Eider) concentration here can be extremely impressive.

Jeannette and I just returned from a relaxing and joyful two days with family in Vermont.

Nephew Sam gets his life list off to an early start; gotta start ‘em young!

Our Christmas Day birding was limited to a snowshoe in the woods, and feeder watching between bouts of gluttony. While neither produced much in the way of avian diversity, beautiful weather (temps in the mid to upper 30’s and lots of sun), made both exceedingly enjoyable. The quantity of Black-capped Chickadees at the feeders was particularly impressive, and the action at the window feeder (see above) was excellent. I particularly enjoyed the antics of the chickadees when they approached the window feeder – they would often cling to nearby icicles before landing on the feeder. Occasionally, they would also hover at the tip of the icicle to catch a drop of melting water. It certainly doesn’t take rarities to keep me – or Sam – entertained!

On Wednesday morning, we headed out (spotting a flock of about 20 Snow Buntings in a field along the road towards Stowe) and stopped for a walk at the Stowe Recreation Path. Despite nice habitat – woods and brushy edge bordering a still-open brook, fields, yards, and the edge of town, birds were suprisingly few and far between.

After a great lunch at Waterbury Wings (the hot breaded buffalo wings scored a very impressive 9 on my very particular scoring system), we took Rte 2 into Montpelier, just for a change of scenery and to check for shrikes along the way, and any frugivores that may have been feeding on downtown crabapples. No luck in either case, and a walk at the North Branch Nature Center was not very fruitful (we were hoping for an active feeding station, but the one lone tube feeder only hosted some Black-capped Chickadees.

Meanwhile, back home, this morning I took a quiet walk at Hedgehog Mountain Park – still hoping for a White-winged Crossbill to add to my Hog list - before heading in to the store.

For our birdwalk on Saturday morning, I took the group to Portland’s Eastern Promenade to cover that thoroughly for the Greater Portland Christmas Bird Count. This was the first CBC that I joined in Maine, and I really regretted not being able to fully cover my territory this year. But, since the snow date turned out to be the Saturday before Christmas, there wasn’t much chance that I could escape! But, at least we got to “play” for a couple of hours. Totals for our outing are on our store’s website, as usual, and here’s some photos from the morning by Kirk Rogers.

On Sunday, I enjoyed the downright balmy (temps were rapidly climbing through the upper 30’s) morning at Reid State Park in Georgetown. Not only was it a great morning weather-wise – especially when the sun peaked out - it was an exceptional morning bird-wise.

As I walked down the road to Todd’s Head, I crossed the marsh, and was first treated to a large mixed flock of at least 40 Snow Buntings and 15 or so Horned Larks took flight. The reason: a Short-eared Owl was on the move, cruising low of the grass, looking for voles or unsuspecting buntings and larks. It’s always a treat to see any owl, and this was the first Short-ear that I have seen in at least two years in Maine.

At the edge of the parking area of Todd’s Head, a flock of 24 Bohemian Waxwings were roosting in a spruce, before making a trip down to gobble some Winterberry. Offshore, an adult and an immature Black-legged Kittiwake passed by, but it was a massive conglomeration of Red-necked Grebes on the water that was the headliner today. One big, strung-out raft of 176, plus 55 individuals and scattered small groups, for a grand total of 227 birds was by far the largest number of this species that I have seen in Maine, and probably the largest number that I have ever seen away from Whitefish Point in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It was really an impressive sight. Meanwhile, another 26 Snow Buntings left the beach and headed into the marsh.

Driving towards Yarmouth, I checked a handful of locations, including the New Meadows River at the New Meadows Ledges Inn, where one late hen Ring-necked Duck joined 3 Hooded Mergansers, a pair of Common Goldeneye, along with the usual attendant Mallards and American Black Ducks. And finally, I enjoyed 4 pairs of Common Mergansers in the Androscoggin River from the Rte 24 bridge between Brunswick and Topsham.

On Wednesday morning, I took Sasha for my 6-mile Pownal “neighborhood” loop, which produced 4 Pine Grosbeaks (along Tuttle Road), as well as the usual resident species.

Overnight, a trough of low pressure developed along the coast, producing yet another snowstorm. Light snow began to fall late in the afternoon on Wednesday, and continued all the way through Thursday evening, producing up to 8 inches. Bands of snow pushed onshore on easterly winds, which meant it was the coast this time that received the deepest accumulations. So once again, my morning was spent snowblowing the driveway before heading to the store (since we open at 9 in the week before Christmas). Honestly, it’s starting to get a bit old. Jeannette and I are starting to get flashbacks to living in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where the town we lived in – Paradise – received an AVERAGE of 220 inches of snow a winter (and that winter usually began in October and lasted into April!). So we can’t really complain! (Although, I have to admit, it was nice to be renting an apartment there, and have someone else clear our driveway!)

I stayed local again this (Friday) morning, electing to visit a handful of locations in Freeport and Portland. With the sun shining, little wind, and temperatures rising into the 20’s, it was quite pleasant out. There were no frugivores at the LL Bean Headquarters, but I did run into the 100 or so Bohemian Waxwings feeding on crabapples at the Freeport Plaza and adjacent Econolodge, and roosting in the woods across the street. A great spectacle continues!

While I failed to locate the Barrow’s Goldeneye today at either the South Freeport Town Landing or Winslow Park today, I did have a lone Purple Sandpiper at the tip of Winslow. A few stops along the Royal River produced little – as the only open water was at the base of the Lower Falls and was devoid of ducks. As would be expected in our wintery conditions of late, open water on slow-moving rivers like the Royal is hard to find; most non-sea ducks have cleared out early this year. Then, a yard in which I was delivering seed to produced two Pine Siskins within a flock of American Goldfinches, the first of this species that I have seen in close to a month. Clearly, the irruption of these guys has (mostly) passed us by.

Switching gears a bit, I would like to mention this recent article on ethanol. In addition to all of the other reasons that corn-based ethanol is a complete economic and environmental farce (and political boondoggle), here’s a recent article showing the damage that the nitrogen-fertilizer-heavy corn boom is doing to the Gulf of Mexico.

Today (Tuesday) Lysle, Robby, and I participated in the Southern York County CBC, which was originally scheduled for yesterday. It was wicked cold out there, especially along Ogunquit Beach early this morning!

This LOOKS how my toes FELT early this morning; I clearly had not worn thick-enough socks today.

Deep snow, covered with an inch or two of ice, made for brutal post-holing when attempting to walk off of roads or the beach. In fact, my shins are rather painful right now – but no (CBC) pain, no (CBC) gain! Also, huge piles of snow in a few pullouts and other spots that we take advantage of did not help either. However, when all was said and done – especially considering we could only spend ½ the day on our effort – we had an absolutely tremendous day of birding!

48 species in all, including some real surprises. A flock of American Robins and Cedar Waxwings in crabapples at the Anchorage Inn in Ogunquit, a pair of Gadwall in the Ogunquit River (first at the river mouth, a little later from just north of the Beach Road Bridge), and two Harlequin Ducks in the surf at the River’s mouth got things started.

Ogunquit-Moody Beach produced 8 Horned Larks and 28 Snow Buntings, which we think joined up to form a flock of at least 70 that we encountered in the marsh later in the morning. Three Bald Eagles (one adult, and two immatures) were soaring over Moody Beach, causing all of the gulls and ducks in the marsh to lift off. A total of 5 species of raptors on the day was excellent, including the eagles and a young male Sharp-shinned Hawk with its brunch.

Despite frozen toes and frigid faces, we continued on, making our last and final stop at the Wells Waste Water Treatment Plant off of Eldridge Road at the northernmost end of our territory. The three of us split up, tallying things like Dark-eyed Juncos and Black-capped Chickadees in the brushy edge of the facility.

Despite a wicked cold morning (10 degrees above with a 15+ mph wind), the five hardy souls who joined me for our store’s Saturday morning birdwalk were treated to one of the absolute best mornings of birding we’ve had. A complete summary, as usual, is on the news page of Yarmouthbirds.com (plus a reminder of Wednesday’s book release party event!), but the highlights included 100+ Bohemian Waxwings, a total of 86 Pine Grosbeaks in three different places, and – finally – my first Barrow’s Goldeneye, a drake, at the South Freeport Town Landing.

The Barrow’s was posing nicely for digiscoping. Unfortunately, the wind was enough to make the scope - and the dock! – shake, which didn’t help, and before long, my bare hand was nearly frozen to the camera. However, I did get a few “keepers.”

Later, in the afternoon, while taking Sasha on her regular short stroll over to Royal River Park, I ran into 8 Pine Grosbeaks in a crabapple in a yard on East Elm Street. Can I go anywhere WITHOUT seeing these guys this winter!?

Meanwhile, as much as a foot of snow fell on Sunday (with lower totals along the coast where the period of sleet, freezing rain, and rain lasted longer; we got about 10 inches at home in Pownal), and therefore birding was limited to the feeders (a new yard high count of 33 Mourning Doves) and a short cross-country ski trip down our road and into the woods before the Patriot’s Game.

On a frigid Thursday morning, a short walk with the dog at Old Town House Park produced a fly-over Bohemian Waxwing. This season, that’s not a rare thing – but seeing a lone waxwing (of either flavor) is indeed a rather rare thing; these highly gregarious birds are seldom encountered alone.

One again we were grazed by the northern edge of a storm system (the one that caused the devastating ice storms in the Midwest), producing up to 4 inches of fresh powder.

With a whole slew of errands to run in Portland, I spent just a short time this morning scouting for the Greater Portland Christmas Bird Count, which was scheduled for Sunday. The weather forecast didn’t look good, but I decided to remain optimistic, and get some scouting done just in case.

While my usual route is pretty well set, I like to check on a few of the weedy lots and other nooks and crannies beforehand, just in case they’re worth a diversion on count day. Checking lots on the East End and gardens in Downtown between errands and Christmas shopping, did not produce much of note, other than a White-throated Sparrow in the courtyard of One Portland Square in the center of the city. Then, it was into Old Port for some Christmas shopping. (And, despite my optimism, when I got to the store, I learned – as expected – that the CBC has been postponed until Saturday, Dec 22!)

On Wednesday morning, after snow, sleet, ice, and rain fell overnight, I took a slushy walk at Hedgehog Mountain, where I heard a Pine Grosbeak, my 124th species for the patch. Jeannette has heard and seen them hear a few times lately, so I was happy to catch up with one today. This winter finch “superflight” is really helping to pad my Patch Lists!

It’s supposed to be another frigid morning tomorrow, but you know I’ll be out! At the very least, Sasha needs here walk, so might as well have the binoculars around my neck– not that I can actually leave the house without them! – especially with the plethora of irruptives around. But, I do realize not everyone is as dedicated (read: insane) as I am, so on some of these cold, wintry days, it’s tough to beat curling up with a good book (well, at least while keeping one eye on the feeders!).

Recently, someone asked me what books I have read recently, so I decided to put together this mini-review of the books that I have read in the past few months. Of course, this is in addition to all of the birding magazines, but that’s another story. And, I probably should mention that most of these, are, of course, available from the Wild Bird Center of Yarmouth!

So, here goes:
1) The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions, by David Quammen.

A winner of the prestigious John Burroughs Medal for Natural History writing, this was by far one of the best books that I have read in a while.

I had full intentions of heading to Scarborough Marsh on Monday morning, but with a steady light snow falling, I settled down in front of the window to enjoy the activity at the feeders. Although our 24 Wild Turkeys visit daily, I am still entertained by their antics at the feeding station. I also took some time to study our flock of 18 Mourning Doves; one bird was still retaining some of its juvenile plumage, while another was distinctly darker brown on the body, and very obvious among the flock. Individual variation of common birds is often overlooked, but it worth studying when you have the chance, if only to practice noticing plumage details.

Notice how much darker brown the second bird from the right on the platform feeder is.

After reading the Sunday paper which I never got around to doing on Sunday, listening to Al Gore’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech (my social commentary comment of the morning: while this was on CNN, I switched over to Faux News out of curiosity, and saw film of a guy shooting baseballs out of a pitching machine at his crotch. There’s a ton of symbolism here, which I won’t get into at this time . . .), and then back to some feeder watching. Before I knew it, it was time to head to the store.

Here at the store, the feeder activity has picked up again. Most likely the local Cooper’s Hawk(s) and/or the Northern Shrike has been frequenting our feeders a little too often. See, when you put out feeders you put out an unnatural quantity of food. Therefore, you attract an unnatural quantity of small birds. Therefore, when you attract the prey, you attract the predator. Typically, what you see is that the prey disperse – they have plenty of other food sources to fall back on, both natural and other feeders - and then the predator (now without an unusual concentration of potential meals) gives up and moves on. The small birds soon return. And, that seems to be the case here, with our usual cast of characters regularly visiting again, and our Carolina Wren in particular, has been much more regular than usual over the past few days.

Was it not for the damp, cold air that finally penetrated my layers this morning, sending a chill through my body, I could have stayed at the tip of East Point in Biddeford Pool all day!

To my left, an immature, dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk hunted over Wood Island, alternating between hovering and stoically watching the grass below from the top of a small tree. To my right, 150 Purple Sandpipers snoozed on the rocks. Behind me, Mount Washington was simply glowing with early morning sun shining brightly off its snow-covered summit.

In front of me, one scope field of view held a gorgeous drake King Eider (the same bird I found here about 2 weeks ago) among spiffy Common Eiders, all three scoters, and both Horned and Red-necked Grebes. A short scan to the left or right would easily add Red-breasted Merganser, Common Goldeneye, Great Cormorant, Long-tailed Duck, and Black Guillemot. Farther offshore, two Northern Gannets passed offshore.

A truant American Pipit announced its presence as it passed overhead, and a dozen Snow Buntings that had been in a bare patch on the gold course as I walked out were now circling overhead and calling. The cause of this was soon evident, as walking back past the gold course yielded an immature Northern Shrike perched at the edge of the green.

You know its cold when the fur-covered dog is shivering in the morning. Yup, 5 whole degrees out there when I awoke, rising all the way to 7 when we stepped out the door. Snowshoeing at Bradbury Mountain State Park quickly warmed me up however, even if the only noteworthy bird was a single White-winged Crossbill in flight.

Just as we were stepping out the door to head into the store, Jeannette and I heard a Pine Grosbeak somewhere near, or perhaps flying low over, the yard – our 101st yard bird. Funny, just yesterday I replied to Dan’s comment to my blog entry for 12/4, asking him to send some Pine Grosbeaks over from his yard. Thanks Dan?!

Meanwhile, for those of you who don’t read the Maine-birds listserve, there have been an unusual number of reports of Barred Owls of late around Maine (Remember the prediction from the Ontario Winter Finch Update from my 11/30 post?).

Here is my post to Maine-birds, providing some information about the irruption of Barred Owls that seems to be underway. That was followed by some confirming data from Avian Haven, a wildlife rehab facility in Freedom.

Cold, below-normal temperatures continue, allowing for little melting of snow. It’s still quite the picturesque winter wonderland out there!

On Wednesday, I checked out two sheltered locations with abundant fruit and seed crops in Portland, hoping for rarities, tardy migrants, and anything else that may have been concentrated by the snowstorm.

First, it was the Fore River Trail, which was once again quite productive, with a lingering Belted Kingfisher and Northern Flicker, a Carolina Wren, a Fox Sparrow, 7 spiffy Hooded Mergansers, and a good raptor show: 3 Red-tailed Hawks, and once each of Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned. The only frugivores, however, were two small flocks of European Starlings and 4 Northern Mockingbirds, while the only finches were scattered small groups of American Goldfinches, a few House Finches, and 4 Common Redpolls passing overhead.

Then, I checked out Capisic Pond Park, which is often quite birdy in early winter, and it definitely was today. One Cedar Waxwing was with a flock of 15 American Robins scarfing down crabapples, one Snow Bunting flew overhead, and a female Purple Finch dropped in – the first that I have seen in a week or two; this irruptive has really thinned out of late. Plus, the usual residents of course: including 11 Northern Cardinals (which are always plentiful here. The bright scarlet males always look especially magnificent against a back drop of pure white, fresh snowfall.)

Thursday morning, Jeannette and I – and Sasha, of course - went for a dawn cross-country ski at Old Town House Park. It was cold, 11 degrees in fact, but without a wind, we found it quite pleasant once the sun broke the treeline and we worked up a little warmth. It has been cold enough these past few days that the snow was still light and fluffy, and the skiing was perfect. About 10 Common Redpolls flew overhead, our avian highlight for the morning.

Then, I checked out the South Freeport Town Landing and Winslow Park, looking to see if the Barrow’s Goldeneyes are back in town yet. Unfortunately, high tide is not the best time to look for these guys, as they are often far upriver until freeze-up begins, and this morning the heat shimmer was awful. There were plenty of ducks upriver from the town landing, including some goldeneye, but most were just fuzzy, wavy, unidentifiable lumps in the distance. I did have a White-winged Scoter, rare this far up river, from the town landing, and 3 Dunlin at the tip of Winslow Park.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow . . . and then snow some more . . .

And it did. Flurries began to fall Sunday evening, and fell steadily throughout the day – for most of us – and into the night on Monday. A wrap-around northwesterly flow, as the storm moved into Atlantic Canada, produced yet more light snow for Tuesday morning. All in all, 7 to 11 inches fell across the area.

Today, with snow still falling this morning, the agenda was simple:
1) Clear driveway.
2) Snowshoe with Sasha at Hedgehog Mountain Park (although nearly devoid of birds, it was a lovely winter wonderland nonetheless)
3) More feederwatching, with a hot cup of tea.

It was a good couple of days to be feederwatching. At our Pownal home, the feeder bird activity was heavier than usual, with some new arrivals as well. Two American Tree Sparrows arrived today, our Dark-eyed Junco count grew from 2 to 4, and our Mourning Dove flock increased to 10 birds today as groundfeeders were driven to feeding stations by the accumulating snow. I was hoping for some winter finches, but they did not make an appearance. However, for the first time in the three years that we’ve lived here, we had a pair of Northern Cardinals at the feeders together. Last winter, and a few times off and on during this summer and fall, we’ve been treated to a male, while this winter a female has been frequenting the yard. During the snow yesterday, the male returned, and the two fed together on our hopper and platform feeders.

While cardinals are by no means rare in Southern Maine, they are not a bird of the deep woods. Nor are they a bird of open lawn. Over the past few years, we’ve been working hard to diversify and improve our yard’s habitat, especially by allowing 80% of what had been lawn to revert to fields and scrub. Two long edges now densely packed with brambles and a scrubby thicket is already forming, and this habitat improvement is likely the reason for cardinals to now be frequenting our yard – along with a noticeable increase in our sparrow sightings.

A blustery birdwalk on Saturday was warmed up by a flock of 15 Pine Grosbeaks and some Common Redpolls at Pratt’s Brook Park in Yarmouth. In the calm before the storm on Sunday, I debated between looking for vagrants seeking food and shelter in Portland-area migrant traps, or heading inland looking for waterfowl and irruptives. I chose the latter. I should have chosen the former!

I’ve been meaning to make the time to do a Bowdoinham-Sabattus-Auburn loop, and so that’s where I headed today. My fear was that I would find more ice and birds; my fear was realized. The Bowdoinham town landing and the mouth of the Abagadasset were frozen, with only a handful of distant ducks visible in the heat shimmer off of Brown’s Point Rd, including 26 Common Mergansers. Six more Common Mergs were in the river at the Richmond Town Landing, but then I turned west towards Sabattus, looking for shrikes and frugivores along the way. I was surprised to find that deep Sabattus Pond was just about completely frozen, with the only waterfowl being 102 Canada Geese and 10 Mallards sleeping on the ice off of Sawyer Rd.

Heading into the “twin cities,” I encountered a flock of 75 Cedar Waxwings – the largest flock of this species that I have seen in a while – feeding on crabapples next to the Bates College campus along College Street, while 113 Mallards and 2 American Black Ducks had congregated in Andrews Pond. I then checked a few sites along the Androscoggin River, where there was too LITTLE ice, and therefore nothing to concentrate ducks at various rips and rapids. A few Common Goldeneyes, Common Mergansers, American Black Ducks, and 2 Hooded Mergansers were noted at various stops including the Androscoggin River Preserve and along Switzerland Road below the Gulf Island Dam.

My most productive stop of the morning was my last – the Auburn riverwalk. 177 Mallards and 6 American Black Ducks were loafing along the shore. I always make a point of checking flocks of Mallards at this time of year, as they can easily have lingering individuals of various other species (not to mention the fact that they are darn pretty birds!). Two more Common Goldeneyes were in the river as well.