The third annual Plymouth County Waterfowl Survey was run on Nov 17, and 20 Club members participated. There were four field teams in all, led by Charlie Nims, David Ludlow, Jim Sweeney and Glenn D'Entremont. Skies were clear and there was no ice on the ponds, so the game was on. The goal for the day is to find and count all the waterfowl on freshwater ponds in Plymouth County. This time of year the days are short but by the end of this day we had recorded over 5,000 waterfowl.
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| Ruddy Duck |
Some of the most interesting ducks included a female Barrow's Goldeneye, two Northern Shovelers, a White-winged Scoter, Red-throated and Common Loons and Pied-billed, Horned and Red-necked Grebes.
More broadly, we noted a second year of decline in the numbers for Mallards and Am. Black Ducks, and we saw the number of Am. Coots return to normal after a huge year last year.
There were also some fine land birds seen near the ponds and lakes, and in other nearby locations once the count was complete. The biggest star was the NORTHERN LAPWING in Bridgewater, and close behind was a pair of Long-eared Owls seen in flight at the Cumberland Farm Fields in Middleboro (dusk).
It turned out to be a slow day for waterfowl in Abington, but John Galluzzo got a nice picture of a Coyote.
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| Northern Lapwing |
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| Coyote |
The tally was held at Finna's Tavern in Kingston, and they did a good job for us, providing a separate area for us and plenty of good beer and food.
Joe Scott
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