Shovelers

Dateline: 13 March 2022

Northern Shoveler male
Northern Shoveler (m), Sweetwater Wetlands, Tucson, Arizona

Now back to our regularly-scheduled programming (ahem), with the BirdingPI.com ‘Weekend Update.’

Snow Friday into Saturday, colder, then very windy and very cold into Sunday. Partially clear Sunday morning, remaining cold, turning overcast with lake-effect snow later in the day. Brutally cold Sunday on the back bay (e.g., looking at gulls at West Pier) with the wind chill, elsewhere just cold. As we’ve said, in Erie, if you think the cold weather’s over, think again.

Big news: first sighting of Northern Shovelers at Presque Isle State Park this season (for BirdingPI.com at least). Following are on Long Pond:

Northern Shovelers Presque Isle State Park
Lower left-hand corner
Northern Shovelers Presque Isle State Park
Middle top and foreground left
Northern Shovelers Presque Isle State Park
Far left and on the right

The problem with Northern Shovelers at Presque isle is the distance, e.g., they’re usually seen on the opposite side of the pond, bay, or whatever. With that in mind, seems like a good time for some photos from the BirdingPI.com trip to BiRDS field station (Tucson, Arizona) back in February. https://birdingpi.com/greetings-from-the-field-station/

Sweetwater Wetlands is sandwiched between Interstate 10 and the Santa Cruz River (usually dry) on the northwest side of Tucson. https://www.tucsonaz.gov/water/sweetwater-wetlands. No birding trip to Tucson is complete without at least one visit to Sweetwater, preferably multiple visits. It’s a tertiary wastewater treatment facility, meaning reclaimed wastewater is pumped into a series of ponds and marshes for final treatment plus establishing natural habitat. See https://www.epa.gov/wetlands/constructed-wetlands. Anyway, great place for seeing any number of local birds (stay turned for future posts), but in particular migratory waterfowl, sometimes relatively close. Like these amazingly beautiful Northern Shovelers (females are mostly brown, males are white/russet/iridescent head):

Northern Shovelers, Sweetwater Wetlands, Tucson, Arizona
Three’s Company
The Ropers
Northern Shovelers, Sweetwater Wetlands, Tucson, Arizona
Three’s a crowd
Northern Shovelers, Sweetwater Wetlands, Tucson, Arizona
On a log
Northern Shovelers, Sweetwater Wetlands, Tucson, Arizona
Preening
What a beautiful duck!
Northern Shovelers, Sweetwater Wetlands, Tucson, Arizona (with American Coot)
With Coot
Northern Shovelers, Sweetwater Wetlands, Tucson, Arizona
Still beautiful!
Northern Shovelers, Sweetwater Wetlands, Tucson, Arizona
Dual preening

Back to Erie for a final bit of exciting news from Sunday. In addition to the Shovelers, spotted what appears to be two Pied-billed Grebes on Long Pond. First shot on the left foreground, with Pintails (on left and right) and what might be American Black Ducks in the middle:

Pied-billed Grebe

And two in the center/center-left, with Ring-necked Ducks on the right:

Two Pied-billed Grebes

In this crop, note the distinctive white bill with black band:

Pied-billed Grebes, detail