Today, February 13, 2017, I visited a reservoir in Chester County, Pennsylvania to see what wildlife was stirring. When I first arrived at that mitigated lake, I saw several hundred Canada geese, as is often the case in winter and early spring on that lake, but no other wildlife. But by looking closer with binoculars, I saw a small variety of water birds, including several common mergansers, and a few each of ring-necked ducks, mallard ducks and ring-billed gulls, all species leftover from winter. And there was one female hooded merganser, as well. But because of the strong wind, almost all the birds on the lake were huddled in the shallows against a shoreline protected from the wind by a wooded slope. The open part of the lake, on the other hand, was rough with wavelets and white caps, but the water under the influence of that hill was calm, giving the water birds the peace they needed for rest and sleep.
I don't think any of those birds were suffering from the cold of the wind because they all have dense layers of water and wind-proof feathering that keeps them dry and warm. These species often rest on ice and cold water on open impoundments when the wind is moderate.
As I watched those water birds through my field glasses, I noticed that the male common mergansers' heads were a bright, iridescent green in the sunlight of this partly sunny day. And their mostly white bodies, green heads and red beaks together made them quite striking. Female common mergansers, on the other hand, have pale-gray feathering on their bodies and brownish heads, each one of which has a crest like a bad hair day. The mergansers dove under water from the surface to catch small fish in the impoundment.
Startlingly, as I watched the water birds along the quiet shoreline, I noticed a mink, possibly a male, running along the ground at the edge of the water on the far side of the lake from where I was. His movements were quick and within seconds he disappeared in the undergrowth of the woods. A half hour later, I saw another, smaller, more slender mink, probably a female, running along the shore on my side of the impoundment. She was there one second and gone the next.
I have seen mink in southeastern Pennsylvania before, but not two in one day. Mid-February is the start of their breeding season, so many mink throw caution to the wind in their search for a mate, even in the day, which, today, was thrilling to me.
Moving around the lake, I came to a field with a woods behind it to the north. A red-tailed hawk was perched in a tree on the south edge of that woodland and watched the field for mice to catch and eat. What was most interesting about that hawk was its facing south in its quest for food. The sun was shining on that raptor's belly, warming it, and the bird was protected from the cold, north wind by the woods behind it; a perfect hunting spot for that cold, windy day.
Moving along again, I came to a large flock of a few thousand purple grackles on a harvested cornfield where those many birds were eating waste kernels of corn on the ground, and anything else edible. I first noticed that great gathering of grackles because the middle of that beige field looked black in its middle, indicating a swarm of blackbirds of some species on the ground. Watching with binoculars, I saw the grackles' purple sheen on their black plumage, their walking about in search of food and their constantly taking to the air, flying a short distance over the field and landing on it again. Evidently, they cleaned edibles out of one field and moved to another, and another. This they do all day, every day, wherever they are all through autumn and winter, and into early spring.
I had an interesting field trip today, as I often do. I saw some birds using protection from the wind. I noticed a couple of love-struck mink on the prowl for mates and a bit of spring in the form of the grackles. Readers can do the same. Just get outside and look around at all times of year.
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