Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Redheads- Turners Falls Canal

 
Redhead Ducks and one Lesser Scaup.

I read James Smith's post the other day on Massbird, and was pleased to hear the Redhead Ducks were still present at the Power Canal in Turner's Falls. So late Saturday afternoon I headed up hoping these elusive ducks would still be around. After a sort walk down the road, I came upon a decent gathering of waterfowl, which included the six Redheads. Redhead Ducks in the valley are by no means an annual visitor, in fact, an active birder could easily miss this species several years in a row. So the six birds in Turner's Falls was really nice to see. Besides the Redheads, a Northern Shoveler, Northern Pintail, American Wigeon, Lesser Scaup and Common Mergansers put of a nice late afternoon show.                                                                                        American Wigeon
American Wigeon in flight. 
Redhead-female
Redheads
Redhead -airborne
Northern Shoveler-  
Common Merganser-female