Event Recap: Bald Eagles, Waterfowl Show, and Woodcock Display

by Peter Alden

Our group was pleasantly suprised by the many waterfowl at Great Meadows

Last Saturday afternoon a dozen of us met at Great Meadows NWR in Concord with Peter Alden and Lillian Stokes. We enjoyed seeing an adult Bald Eagle feeding on a dead duck or goose. It was later joined by three immature Bald Eagles and the adult circling in the breeze overhead. A show-off Red-winged Blackbird put on a great show on a nearby cat-tail. Tree Swalows zoomed by.

The Spring waterfowl show was on display! Several pairs of Hooded Mergansers were eyeing Wood Duck boxes as home sweet home. Small groups of female Common Mergansers and several pairs of Common Goldeneyes floated by.

Hooded Mergansers

Woodcock Display

Towards dusk we moved over to the Thoreau Birth House, up Virginia Road. As darkness fell we were rewarded with a fine view under flashlights of a male American Woodcock at his staging site it has used for several years at the edge of a field. It uttered its unmusical peent over and over as we watched in the telescope and with binoculars. Eventually it rose up in a fast series of circles reaching and getting lost in some low clouds. It then swooped back and landed on its display spot for additional looks before again going heavenward.

A Festive Dinner to Celebrate our Avian Adventure

We then reassembled at Peter's home where his brother Richard prepared a fabulous meal for us. Great fun at two long tables with energetic conversations that completed a fun evening focused on our enjoyment of our Avian migrants. More photos below (courtesy of Lillian Stokes and Tony Troppito).