A Waterfowl Weekend
On Saturday, I was supposed to host a field trip for Iowa Young Birders at Lake Wapello State Park. No-one signed up, but I decided to go anyway because I’ve been seeing a lot of waterfowl movement lately.
When I first arrived, I was worried. There were only a few Canada Geese that I could see on the water. As I walked through the beach house, I noticed a group of three Trumpeter Swans. Two of them must have been males because they kept tossing their heads, swimming at each other and then doing short flying circles around the third.
While watching this little show, I spotted a flotilla of Lesser Scaups wading behind them and a couple of American Coots wading near the dock area.
I decided to walk along the lakeshore trail and see if I could find any other waterfowl hiding in some of the coves. This trail cuts through some of the wooded edge that can hold a great variety of bird species.
A group of Common Mergansers flew over, followed by a lone Hooded Merganser as I began down the trail. It was a fairly windy day, and the birds were laying low. I found a few White-breasted Nuthatches, Tufted Titmice, and a variety of woodpeckers.
As I came around the point at the edge of the campground, I knew I was nearing a common Song Sparrow spot. I hadn’t yet seen a Song Sparrow for the year, and was pleased that my spot provided two of them again. It’s comforting knowing the places where you can find a particular species.
Along the wooded point, I heard a grunting noise coming from the water. To me, that noise was noticeably a merganser species although I wasn’t sure which one at first. As I worked my way toward the edge, I noticed a few male Hooded Mergansers bobbing their heads and grunting at a lone female.
I worked my further around the lake with more of the same species. As I crested the hill near the south silt pond dam, I first noticed a lot of Canada Geese. I then spotted a group of Mallards in the wooded corner of the pond. My eyes adjusted a little to the light and I realized the pond was covered in waterfowl. Most of the ducks were Ring-necked Ducks. I wasn’t able to identify everything before they flew off.
The trail went into a wooded area from there and I was able to spot a Brown Creeper. Through the trees, I was just able to see the lake. On the water, I could see a group of Mallards. As I tried to take some photos, I noticed a chestnut stripe down the side of one of the distant ducks. I looked a little closer and found that it was a Northern Shoveler!
Later, as I worked through the photos of this group later, I noticed that there were also a few male Northern Pintails mixed in as well. After my final counts through photos, I had spotted a total of 13 waterfowl species and 31 species of birds overall. I was only a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker away from finding all seven species of woodpeckers that call Iowa home.
I was thankful for such a great day birding at the lake, but was disappointed that I didn’t get to share that experience with any young birders. I was able to cover more ground on my own, but getting to show a young person the display of a Hooded Merganser, or finding their first Ruddy Duck is really something special. If you have a young person in your life, check out the opportunities for getting them out in nature near you. In Iowa, I would highly encourage you to look at our Iowa Young Birders calendar of upcoming events.
Nancy Thompson is the winner of our last Birds & Beans Coffee giveaway!
If you would like to enter this weeks giveaway, comment below with some of the species that you’ve been seeing lately. Bonus points if you’ve taken a young birder out recently as well.
