Tues. 1/22: Ducks o' plenty at Brig, Salem County Ross's Goose report

I made a late-morning stop at Brig (Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge) between classes to find that most of the impoundments and other ponds were almost completely frozen. However, that didn't mean that there weren't any birds to be seen, as there were still a few open pockets remaining along the south and east dikes where ducks were concentrated. Highlights included a single Merlin toward the end of the driving loop, an estimated 2500+ American Black Ducks roosting on the ice in the middle of the west pool, 83 Northern Shovelers and a Mallard x Black Duck hybrid along the south dike, and roughly 900 distant scaup that could not be sorted to species, well out in the bay visible from the south dike as one looks toward Atlantic City.

In other news, Sandra Keller found a Ross's Goose among a flock of thousands of Snow Geese in Salem County this afternoon, near Mannington Marsh.

A full species list from Brig is included-

Location: E B Forsythe NWR--Autoloop
Observation date: 1/22/08
Number of species: 41
Snow Goose 1500
Brant 300
Canada Goose 75
Mute Swan 40
Gadwall 4
American Black Duck 2800
American Black Duck x Mallard (hybrid) 1
Mallard 125
Northern Shoveler 83
Northern Pintail 25
Scaup, sp. 900
Bufflehead 30
Hooded Merganser 45
Common Merganser 4
Red-breasted Merganser 2
Ruddy Duck 2
Great Blue Heron 1
Bald Eagle 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
Merlin 1
Dunlin 125
Ring-billed Gull 2
Herring Gull 60
Great Black-backed Gull 4
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 1
Blue Jay 3
American Crow 6
Carolina Chickadee 2
Carolina Wren 2
Golden-crowned Kinglet 3
Hermit Thrush 1
American Robin 40
European Starling 20
Cedar Waxwing 12
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 8
Savannah Sparrow 2
Song Sparrow 3
White-throated Sparrow 6
Northern Cardinal 2
Red-winged Blackbird 12

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)