Eno's Pond 2/10--Greater Yellowlegs, Wilson's Snipe

I took my first walk at Eno's Pond since last summer. I was hoping for some ducks with my exercise and not much else, so I was pleasantly surprised when I found 2 Wilson's Snipes picking at the water, standing on the edge of the ice at the end of the pond where the creek begins. Wilson's Snipe is usually a cryptic little bird, hard to find while it feeds in muddy marshes. But I suppose all the marshes in the area are frozen and yesterday's snow covered any bare ground, so the only nearby available open water was, luckily for me, out in the open. I was able to get close enough to see their striped backs, confirming to myself that they were snipes and not something more exotic.

When I backtracked and walked along the path that runs along the pond, hoping to get another angle on the birds I found, at my first stop that they had been chased off by three Greater Yellowlegs. I hadn't seen yellowlegs in so long that for a moment I was stumped as to what bird I was seeing, especially since snipe was still in my mind. I spent some time pondering "greater" or "lesser" but the length of the bill, plus the appearance of a slight upward curve on the bill, plus just the general "jizz" settled me on greater. A Killdeer called from across the water, a kind of "hey, look at me too," call and I quickly found it acting like a big plover--run, look, peck.

I did find ducks, Mallards, of course, but also a large flock of Hooded Mergansers (they seem to be everywhere this year) and a couple of hen Red-breasted Mergansers, as well as black ducks. 2 Great Blue Herons, a cormorant and a kingfisher rounded out the species near the water.

No photographs today. When I took out my camera, I found that I'd left the memory card in my computer this morning while transferring yet another set of Pine Warbler pictures to upload to eBird.  Dope. While listed as a winter rarity, with 3 this morning, they certainly aren't rare in our backyard.

17 species
American Black Duck  10
Mallard  25
Hooded Merganser  30
Red-breasted Merganser  2    
Double-crested Cormorant  1
Great Blue Heron  2
Black Vulture  1
Turkey Vulture  2
Killdeer  1
Greater Yellowlegs  3
Wilson's Snipe  2
Belted Kingfisher  1
Blue Jay  1    Heard
Carolina Chickadee  1    Heard
White-breasted Nuthatch  1    Heard
Hermit Thrush  2
American Robin  10