—–Original Message—– Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 20:35
Lemmon Valley, Washoe Co (2/6/12). 10:00am-noon.
We birded the Lemmon Valley sewage ponds this cold sunny morning for the first time since last fall. The ponds were mostly frozen over, but there were still lots of waterfowl, the majority crowded into the ice-free portions of the big northern pond. The playa was also mostly iced-over, the swans, Canada Geese & other waterfowl being largely confined to the edges of a narrow ice-free corridor near the center. The most abundant ducks by far in both places were Mallards with Gadwall, shovelers & pintails also present in substantial numbers. I looked over the flocks fairly carefully and found the drake Eurasian Wigeon reported earlier, but nothing else at all uncommon. Here’s the complete list (19 sps)
Tundra Swan–c.100 (all out on the playa, at the edge of the ice-free area) Canada Goose–?100 Gadwall Eurasian Wigeon–1 male (at first in the ponds, & then out on the playa) American Wigeon Mallard Northern Shoveler Northern Pintail Green-winged Teal Canvasback–5-6l Redhead–?25 Lesser Scaup–?20 Bufflehead–10-12 Common Goldeneye–c.20 Ruddy Duck Bald Eagle–1 (near-adult) Northern Harrier–2-31 immature Coot White-crowned Sparrow
We first spotted the Bald Eagle as we were driving in along the dirt road leading to the ponds. It was flying low over the desert, when it suddenly swooped down onto a drake Canvasback which it attempted to carry off but dropped after a few seconds & flew up onto a telephone pole where it stayed for a while keeping an eye on its prey. The Canvasback looked dead but when I walked over to it after the eagle had flown off for good, it proved very much alive–though obviously injured–fluttering off into some bushes 30-40 ft away. What a duck was doing here–in dry desert 100 yds from the nearest water–is anybody’s guess. Maybe the eagle had dropped it there before we arrived?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fugl/6833673409 (Bald Eagle)
–Fred Petersen
