"Duck Day" in Henderson and Buncombe Counties, NC
March 14, 2004
8 AM - 3 PM

Some clouds, clearing around lunchtime Birding stops at: Lakes Osceola; Crooked Creek Golf Course; 4 Seasons Swamp; Camp Pinewood, Mills River WWTP, Lake Julian and Beaver Lake; ST's Garden

Lake Osceola was our first stop this morning, and we did pretty well there. The regularly-occurring Ruddies were really getting into excellent plumage and the 2 female Redheads were still there, although they were far from shore most of the time. A superb male Blue-winged Teal was consorting with a female Northern Shoveler (??), which just goes to show that you need to look at all the ducks! We were lucky at Crooked Creek as the Wigeon were out on the grass feeding. A few minutes later they were hidden! Standing by the side of the road along Four Seasons Boulevard is always interesting, but the ducks were worth it. We had a total of over 15 Green-winged Teal and a few Wood Duck. The GWT must have come in the night before, as they were not there the day before. A lot of ducks migrate at night and hence the numbers and variety of species may change on a daily basis. Lake Julian was not too good with only the 8 Horned Grebe present. It was a shame that all of the waterfowl that had been there had already flown. Alas, Beaver Lake was a complete bust and the 2 male Redhead that had been there for weeks had gone! As a very nice consolation we did have 2 Brown-headed Nuthatches excavating nest cavities. Unusual behavior really and I am not sure why both holes were being dug out. Interesting! We finished the day watching Pine Siskins at my feeder, plus watching Maryland beat Duke at Basketball - still foreign to me!!