Thanks to a call from Ed Hack, I was able to chase down some birds he had found this afternoon in Royalton, VT.

At Hurricane Flats on the River Road in South Royalton flooded fields had 4 wood ducks, a green-winged teal, 2 American wigeon, Canada geese, mallards and a killdeer.

Further north at the Fox Stand (Royalton Hill Rd., just before Rt. 107) and across the bridge, Ed found 2 pintails with geese, mallards, and ring-billed gulls. I arrived in miserable visibility conditions but did finally fine the waterfowl, but no gulls. The birds were in the pools of water that collected on the bare soil where they are still scraping away the remains of Irene. The bordering cornfield was picked rather than chopped, so there is a lot of grain on the ground that fed ridiculous numbers of doves last fall and has been covered with snow until today. This could be an interesting field until it gets plowed under. I also had a horned lark in the corn stubble. 

Thanks Ed!

Kyle Jones