MA - Ring-necked Ducks 04/02/13

So much for spring! This morning I had my first birding jaunt since returning from Israel on March 26th. Conditions couldn't have been more contrasting. Barton Cove greeted me with a biting eastern wind and horizontal snow showers. I was as cold this morning as on any given day during the winter. The recently arrived local Eastern Phoebes must have been shivering!

I was hoping to find diving ducks in the cove and I wasn't disappointed. A nice raft of (c.85) male and female Ring-necked Ducks were riding the white-caps and facing into the wind. With them, a pair of slighly out-of-place American Wigeons and a couple of Hooded Mergansers. Elsewhere on the cove, an additional dozen or so Hooded Mergansers and plus three or four Common Mergansers.

 Ring-necked Ducks - with American Wigeons (left and right), Barton Cove, Gill, MA. April 2nd, 2013.

Part of a raft of c.85 Ring-necked Ducks at the cove today.