Under overcast skies with subfreezing temperatures but little breeze, ten observers enjoyed this morning's eagle watch at Wilder Dam, as arranged by the Mascoma Chapter of New Hampshire Audubon.  After a cold night, the river retained an extensive ice cover, but there was, as usual for winter, open water below the dam. Two adult Bald Eagles were seen at the same time.  An immature Bald Eagle flying northward along the river showed no obvious association with the adults. For more than a half hour, one of the adult eagles  perched high on a branch on the Vermont side of the Connecticut River and provided pleasingly close views with binoculars and scopes. No eagles were seen perched on the NH side of the river. At one point, one of the adults repeatedly flew low over Common Mergansers in the river, but no predation occurred.

An estimated total of 125 Mallards in a series of separate flocks  flew upstream along  the river, but, later, smaller numbers of Mallards, assumed to be part of this larger group, were flying southward along the river as though having reversed their direction of flight. Nine Common Mergansers were seen. One male merganser in a group of three was seen to have captured a relatively large fish and was pursued across the water by the two other males in a series of chases. Other birds seen this morning included two Rock Pigeons and about ten American Crows.  An apparent absence of any birds smaller
in size than the pigeons and crows was notable.  eBird Checklist S39299001 contains additional details on this morning's watch. 

George Clark
Norwich, VT


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