As anticipated, lakes and ponds throughout the lower Susquehanna basin are beginning to freeze. Fortunately for the waterfowl thereon, particularly diving ducks, the rain-swollen river is slowly receding and water clarity is improving to provide a suitable alternative to life on the man-made impoundments.
The Susquehanna, ice-free and receding from near flood stage levels last week, can presently provide suitable habitat for diving ducks and other wintering waterfowl.A feeding Common Merganser takes a breather between dives on the Susquehanna in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
The deep freeze is not only impacting ponds and lakes in the lower Susquehanna valley, but is evidently affecting the larger bodies of water to our north and northwest. During Tuesday’s snow event, thousands of diving ducks arrived on the main stem of the river—apparently forced down by the inclement weather while en route to the Atlantic Coast from the Great Lakes and its connected waterways, which are currently beginning to freeze.
Tuesday’s snowfall not only blanketed the landscape with a coating of white,……it prompted thousands of migrating “bay ducks” including Canvasbacks, Redheads, scaup, and other diving species to seek open water and make a forced landing.Scaup were by far the most numerous of the birds in the grounded flight. The majority appeared to be Lesser Scaup.Scaup in flight on the Susquehanna.A mixed raft of scaup and Buffleheads seen one day after a snowstorm-related fallout of late-season migrants. A single Long-tailed Duck, a species formerly known as Oldsquaw, can be seen to the lower left.Scaup and a Bufflehead (center) fly past a Long-tailed Duck. Because they winter primarily in coastal waters, both of the latter species are sometimes categorized as “sea ducks”.A small flock of Ruddy Ducks.While Common Mergansers on the Susquehanna are fish eaters (piscivores), other diving ducks observed during this fallout event are primarily benthic feeders, eating plant matter and invertebrate animals collected from the river bottom.A small flock of Common Goldeneyes. They, like the Long-tailed Duck and Bufflehead, are sometimes known as a species of “sea duck”.Another mixed raft of scaup and Buffleheads loafing on the Susquehanna.Large numbers of waterfowl attract the attention of the river’s ever-vigilant Bald Eagles.An adult Bald Eagle patrolling the area of a fallout in search of dead, sick, or injured ducks. In addition to the victims of naturally occurring ailments, eagles find birds and mammals wounded or killed by hunters to be particularly attractive sources of food. They can, therefore, quite easily ingest pieces of shot. Because eagles in the lower Susquehanna valley feed as frequently in upland habitats as they do in riverine environs, use of alternatives to toxic lead shot is prudent practice in all habitat types.A Bald Eagle in the first month of its fourth calendar year. Though not yet matured to breeding age, this bird is nevertheless smart enough to be on the lookout for vulnerable or deceased waterfowl during a post-storm fallout.A fallout of some migrating waterfowl seldom escapes notice by members of the gasoline and gunpowder gang……who find their very presence an irresistible temptation to arouse their adolescent urges……to get an adrenaline junkie’s fix.
With more snow on the way for tomorrow, you may be wondering if another fallout like this could be in the works. The only way to find out is to get out there and have a look. Good luck! And be good!
Following the deep freeze of a week ago, temperatures soaring into the fifties and sixties during recent days have brought to mind thoughts of spring. In the pond at susquehannawildlife.net headquarters, Green Frogs are again out and about.
A pair of Green Frogs seen today alongside the headquarters pond. A sign of spring?
But is this really an early spring? Migrating waterfowl indicate otherwise. Having been forced south from the Great Lakes during the bitter cold snap, a variety of our tardy web-footed friends belatedly arrived on the river and on the Susquehanna Flats of upper Chesapeake Bay about ten days ago. Now, rising water from snow melt and this week’s rains have forced many of these ducks onto local lakes and ponds where ice coverage has been all but eliminated by the mild weather. For the most part, these are lingering autumn migrants. Here’s a sample of some of the waterfowl seen during a tour of the area today…
Like other late-season migrants, Snow Geese take advantage of open water on area lakes until ice forces them south to the Atlantic Coastal Plain. In a little more than a month from now, they’ll begin working their way north again.Tundra Swans and American Black Ducks loafing on an ice-free lake.The non-native Mute Swan has become an invasive species. Because they are predominantly non-migratory, groups of Mute Swans congregating in valuable wetland habitat can decimate these aquatic ecosystems with their persistent year-round feeding. Their long necks help them consume enormous quantities of benthic foods that would otherwise be available to migratory diving ducks during their autumn and spring stopovers.Small flocks of Gadwalls will sometimes spend the winter on ice-free vegetated ponds in the lower Susquehanna region.A mixed flock of diving ducks on a small lake. Let’s take a closer look!Six Redheads, three Lesser Scaup (top row left), and a Canvasback (upper right).Redheads.Buffleheads.An adult male Lesser Scaup.A female (right) and a first-winter male (left) Lesser Scaup.Canvasbacks and a Ruddy Duck.
With the worst of winter’s fury still to come, it’s time to say farewell to most of these travelers for a little while. With a little luck, we’ll see them again in March or April.
Our official susquehannawildlife.net prognosticator climbed out of its winter hideout today to have a look around. Then, without hesitation, the forecast for 2023 was issued, “Winter Stinks!”
In late March and early April, a rainy night and fog at daybreak can lead to an ideal morning for spotting migratory waterfowl and seabirds during their layover on the lower Susquehanna. Visibility was just good enough to spot these birds at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, most of them feeding at midriver.
Northern Shovelers are regular migrants, more often seen on ponds and in wetlands than on the river.A pair of American Wigeons head upriver.A Horned Grebe.A small flock of northbound Buffleheads.Ring-necked Ducks.Lesser Scaup, eight of the more than 100 seen along Front Street in Harrisburg at the Pennsylvania Governor’s Residence. Note how the white bar on the wing’s secondaries becomes diffused and dusky in the primaries.Lesser Scaup spend the winter on bays and lakes to our south.More Scaup, the lead bird with bright white extending through the secondaries into the primaries is possibly a Greater Scaup (Aythya marila).Long-tailed Ducks, formerly known as Oldsquaw, are a diving duck that winters on the Great Lakes and on bays along the Atlantic Coast. They nest on freshwater ponds and lakes in the tundra of Canada and Alaska.A male Common Merganser.This pair of Hooded Mergansers may be nesting in a tree cavity nearby.The local Peregrine Falcon grabbed a passing Common Grackle……prompting the more than 100 Bonaparte’s Gulls in the vicinity to quickly depart and fly upstream.It pays to keep an eye on the trees along the shoreline too. Migrants like this Northern Flicker are beginning to come through in numbers.
You remember the signs of an early spring, don’t you? It was a mild, almost balmy, February. The earliest of the spring migrants such as robins and blackbirds were moving north through the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed. The snow had melted and ice on the river had passed. Everyone was outdoors once again. At last, winter was over and only the warmer months lie ahead…beginning with March.
Common Grackles are often the first perching birds to begin moving north through the lower Susquehanna valley in spring. They often winter in large roving flocks of mixed blackbird species on the nearby Atlantic Coastal Plain Province. These flocks sometimes wander the farmlands of the lower Piedmont Province near the river, but rarely stray north of the 40th parallel before February.
Ah yes, March, the cold windy month of March. We remember February fondly, but this March has startled us out of our vernal daydreams to wrestle with the reality of the season. And if you’re anywhere near the Mid-Atlantic states on this first full day of spring, you know that a long winter’s nap and visions of sugar peas would be time better spent than a stroll outdoors. Presently it’s dusk, and the snow from the 4th “Nor’easter” in a month is a foot deep and still falling.
In honor of “The Spring That Was”, here then is a sampling of some of the migratory waterfowl that have found their way to the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed during March. Some are probably lingering and feeding for a while. All will move along to their breeding grounds within a couple of weeks, regardless of the weather.
Tundra Swans will migrate in a northwest direction to reach breeding grounds west and north of Hudson Bay.Migratory Canada Geese departing the Chesapeake Bay area typically pass over the lower Susquehanna valley at high altitudes. A south wind can bring a sustained day-long flight of migrating geese and ducks over the region on a given day in late-February or March.Snow Geese (Chen caerulescens) historically wintered in the marshes of the Atlantic seaboard where the tide cycle kept vegetation primarily snow-free for feeding. Removal of hedgerows and intensive farming since the 1980s has attracted these birds to inland agricultural lands during their preparation for the move north. For nearly three decades, tens of thousands have annually begun their spring journey with a stopover at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area. Flocks range widely from Middle Creek to feed, commonly as far west as the fields of the Conewago Creek valley in the Gettysburg Basin to the east of Conewago Falls. American Black DucksA pair of Northern Shovelers (Anas clypeata).Ring-necked Ducks (Aythya collaris) are “diving ducks”.A male Lesser Scaup, Aythya affinis, (front center) and Ring-necked Ducks (rear and left) seen between feeding dives.A male Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola). These miniature diving ducks will sometimes winter on the Susquehanna in “rafts” of dozens of birds.Tundra Swans journey toward the “Land of the Mid-Night Sun”.
