Photo by Jane Yocom
The winter waterfowl field trip on February 18 certainly had chilly weather suitable for finding waterfowl, but there weren’t a lot to be seen. Led by Jane Yocom, Allison Gallo and Jane Brian Henson, the group searched at three different locations in Loudoun County. The first stop at Middlesex Drive Pond had the regular Mute Swan and a bunch of Gadwall hanging out with some Mallards. Fortunately, we also found a couple of American Wigeons and a lone Green-winged Teal to give us a bit more species diversity. Our second stop Ashburn Lake resulted in only a Great Blue Heron, some Canada Geese and more Mallards. On our third and final stop, Beaverdam Creek Reservoir, we found a large raft of Common Mergansers and a handful of Herring Gulls mixed in with a good number of Ring-billed Gulls. Certainly not our greatest success at finding waterfowl for this annual field trip, but everyone seemed to have fun anyway.