Hooded Mergansers - 29 Mar 2020


It was a mild Sunday morning here in SE Michigan with sunny skies and temps at a balmy 60F. Forecast called for a windy afternoon, so I decided to run around the Bridgewater complex and look for ducks on the local ponds. Two pair of Bufflehead were found yesterday, so I was hoping to relocate them.

As I drove out Arsenal Rd. I spotted a single pair of Bufflehead in the pond nearest our house, but decided to drive through the rest of the complex to see if anything else had appeared overnite. The next pond over, in front of the Bridgewater entrance, a pair of Hooded Mergansers were spotted swimming by themselves. I decided to park and go after them.


Recent rains had left the ground soaked, but I didn't mind kneeling in a puddle to digiscope the birds from the edge of the grass. They were cooperative and provided some nice images with the Swarovski STX85 and Sony a7III.















By the time I had finished with these two I walked over to look for the Bufflehead, but they had flown off. Oh, well. Hopefully, these Hooded Mergansers will stick around a few days more. Stay well!

Brownton Abbey, 26340 Higgins Way, Wayne, Michigan, US
Mar 29, 2020 9:00 AM - 9:30 AM
Protocol: Traveling
0.4 mile(s)
Checklist Comments:     60F! Pt Cloudy; Del Webb ponds
2 species

Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola)  2
Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus)  2

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S160293539

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)