This morning and early afternoon under mostly cloudy conditions Ed  
Hack and I looked for birds from Lake Runnemede in Windsor north to  
Pompy in Norwich.

Highlights included a total of roughly 800 Canada Geese, of which  
about half were in Windsor; two other large flocks were in the  
Connecticut River south of Ledyard Bridge and in the Pompy area.  
Hooded Mergansers and lesser numbers of Common Mergansers were  
widespread along the river from Ledyard Bridge north to just south of  
Pompy. Mallards were also widespread along the river, and we saw a few  
black ducks today. The day was unusual in that waterfowl were seen at  
all four stops we made along the river between Ledyard Bridge and  
Pompy. In the Pompy area west of route 5, all the ducks we saw were  
flying over.

There was still one male Ring-necked Duck at Lake Runnemede this  
morning, and Chris Rimmer, Ed,  and I saw a distant female goldeneye  
at Ledyard Bridge.

As Spencer and Doug pointed out in their UVB message of earlier today,  
the water level in the river today was about the lowest we've ever  
seen from Wilder Dam to the north. Also unusual for today, relative to  
our other recent days along the river, was duck hunting activity.  
Across from Kilowatt Park South in Wilder early this morning there  
were life-like decoy Mallards in the river and a hunting blind on the  
New Hampshire side.

Other birds of special interest today included a Great Blue Heron seen  
to the north from the Ledyard Bridge and an adult Bald Eagle at  
Ledyard Bridge and at two other locations well to the north along the  
river. An adult Red-tailed Hawk was along I-91 southbound between  
Exits 10 and 9. Small numbers of Ring-billed Gulls were seen at Wilder  
Dam and Ledyard Bridge. Together with Chris, we saw a flock of 29  
Cedar Waxwings at Ledyard Bridge.

The only emberizine sparrows we saw along the river today were two  
American Tree Sparrows at Kilowatt Park North in Wilder. (Later,  
during the afternoon snowfall, I saw 14 juncos and 5 White-throated  
Sparrows in the backyard feeding area here in Norwich village.)

George

George Clark
Norwich, VT

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