November is prime time for duck migration so despite the fact that the weather has been too nice for them I’m going to go look for ducks today.
Too good for ducks? Yes, it’s been gorgeous. Warm days, sunny skies and a south wind. Ducks are forced to migrate when the lakes freeze (no chance of that this week!) and like all fall migrants they prefer a tail wind from the north.
So I’m not expecting much but I still want to know… Are the ducks here yet?
(photo by Brian Herman)
.
…Later… after visiting Yellow Creek State Park: As I suspected it was not great for ducks but I found American coots, ruddy ducks, and pied-billed grebes, plus two mallards, one female ring-necked duck and four gadwall. It was a better day for hiking than for ducks – but warm!
Kate, for a couple of mornings now I would have sworn I heard Robins outside. This morning I finally saw them and am surprised they are still around, even tho there seems to be only a few. Shouldn’t they be gone by now, or is the nice weather keeping them around?
Most of the robins you see now in southwestern Pennsylvania are visiting from up north. We still have fruit and berries on many shrubs and on a warm day like today the bugs and grubs are active. We’ve had as many as 100,000 here in early January. The robins will stay here until the first snow cover, then they’ll move south.
See http://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/2008/01/06/100000-robins-near-carnegie/
Very interesting. Thanks for the information.
The ducks better watch out on the Allegheny river! I was out rowing in this beautiful weather on Saturday. I was coming past Pine Creek down river from the dam when I saw two hunters in camafloge suits on the spit of land that juts out from the where the creek meets the river. They had decoys floating there. I didn’t know you could hunt right on the river that near the city. Anybody know about that? Diane