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February 8, 1998
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Nancy spent the night at my house last night and we had plenty of cuddle time before we decided to go out to breakfast at Val's Sandwich Shop and then drive to Rhode Island. We were going to do some outdoor activity or other here, but the sky just looked so blue and the air so warm that I felt up to driving down to East Providence so we could look for birds at the cove and the reservoir and wherever. And we found birds: At Watchemocket Cove:
At Turner Reservoir in East Providence:
Oddly no widgeons at the cove and no domestic geese at the reservoir - a departure from the usual sightings. The reservoir is usually overrun with domestic geese begging for bread, with the odd Muscovy duck thrown in. Oddly, the weather in Rhode Island was not warm and sunny as it was at my house when we left. The wind was so biting at the cove that I couldn't stand to be out there for very long. The sky was heavy and gray, the temperature way cold, and the wind heavy and unremitting. My face stung and I felt chilled. The wind actually drove me back into the car muttering that I'd finally become a weather wimp. Of course, since it was warm and sunny at my house I hadn't dressed for this weather. I had gloves and a scarf in the trunk of the car, but not my fabulous Polartec balaclava style hat. Despite the wind, I had fun trying to identify the huge raft of ducks we saw at the Turner Reservoir. The common mergansers were a lot of fun to watch. They kept swimming back and forth from the south pond to the central pond under the road. Just sitting in the car we got closer to them than we've ever been to any kind of mergansers before. I tried to photograph some American coots that came close to the road but they spooked when a swan made a threat display at them. I guess the swan thought I had bread to feed it and didn't want the coots to have any. That same swan chased away a gaggle of Canada geese and a flock of mallards too. The ruddy ducks were a surprise. I had trouble recognizing them at first because they were all sleeping with their necks curled around and their heads resting on their backs, loafing as my new Waterfowl of the World book calls it. They were about as far from shore as they could get and still be in open water. The ice made a nice boundary on where to look to see any ducks. The gulls and the geese would walk on the ice, but the ducks wouldn't. Way out in the middle of the central pond I saw two great cormorants standing on two rocks. They looked like they were guarding either side of a gateway or something. A gateway to the ice? They are big. Much larger than the double-crested cormorants we usually see at the cove. Being outside despite the wind improved my mood as did the incredible variety of waterfowl. |
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