Crozet, VA 3/18/13

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

Crozet, VA 3/18/13

There was a report filed yesterday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. of 4 Greater and 2 Lesser Scaup at the Old Trail golf course pond. There was snow mixed with rain all night, and this morning there was steady drizzle, fog, and chilly temperatures in the low 30s, but Walt Childs and I wanted to see if the Greater Scaup might have stayed there overnight. I also wanted to try out my new camera rain cape to see how well it worked in adverse weather.

When we arrived at the pond, all we saw was one Scaup, one American Coot, and one Horned Grebe. The Horned Grebe looked like it was starting to get its breeding plumage. The Scaup looked to me like a Lesser, so we didn't stay there very long. We also saw a few sparrows and a Yellow-rumped Warbler.


Scaup


Horned Grebe


Horned Grebe


Horned Grebe


Horned Grebe


Yellow-rumped Warbler

As we were leaving, we met two other birders who said that there were a dozen Scaup at the smaller Old Trail pond up the road, and some of them were Greater, so we headed over there. We did see the dozen Scaup, but they all looked about the same size to me, and I didn't see any of them that shouted out Greater. They all looked like Lesser Scaup to me.


Scaup


Scaup


Scaup


Scaup


Scaup


Scaup


Scaup


Scaup


Scaup


Scaup


Scaup

We then went to Beaver Creek Lake and Mint Springs Park, but there wasn't much to see. So we went to King Family Vineyards where we saw a few Green-winged Teals and Hooded Mergansers.


Green-winged Teals


Hooded Merganser


Hooded Mergansers


Hooded Merganser and Green-winged Teal

As we were leaving, we met a couple of other birders who said that there were all kinds of birds at the Old Trail golf course pond, including Greater Scaup. So we headed backed there again, and ran into another birder who saw that he just saw a Greater Scaup on the pond. We saw 5 Ring-necked Ducks, 2 American Coots, 1 Ruddy Duck, 1 Gadwall, 1 Northern Shoveler, and a few more Scaup, but I still cannot confirm that any of the Scaup that I saw there were Greater. A second Horned Grebe was swimming with the one we had seen earlier.


Ring-necked Ducks


American Coots and Ruddy Duck


Gadwall


Northern Shoveler


Scaup


Scaup


Horned Grebes


Horned Grebe


Horned Grebe



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