[mou] A Pair of Hooded Mergansers and More at the Bass Lake Ponds (TC Metro)

[Steve Bachman]

My wife Joann and I walked the trails through the Bass
Ponds in the MN Valley Nat'l Wildlife Refuge today. 
What a beautiful day to be there!

The highlight of the day for us was a pair of Hooded
Mergansers that we spotted on a small pond just NE of
the Highway 77 ("new" Cedar Ave) bridge.  This pond is
not shown on the map that is available on site, and is
just north of the Hog Back Ridge Trail near where it
intersects Hwy 77.

There were Canada Geese and Mallards on this pond, one
Wood Duck, and at least one Pied-billed Grebe.  We
watched what we thought was a female Merganser, but
weren't sure whether it was a Common or a Hooded. 
Joann thought that its head looked more like a Hooded
and I thought that the bill was more orange, which
suggested a Common.  Hoping to get a closer look, we
left the main trail to follow a path created
(apparently and sadly) by sloppy, trash-strewing
fishermen.  While we were still debating the ID of
this bird, I trained my binoculars on what I assumed
was a male Wood Duck. I found, instead, an
unmistakable male Hooded Merganser.  Joann and I
watched as the female swam up to it, then both of the
birds swam away from us to behind a small island. 
Later, we saw the female resume its fishing
activities, but we didn't see the male again.

So we saw our first-ever Hooded Mergansers.

On Long Meadow Lake, south of the Hog Back Ridge
Trail, we saw hundreds of Coots, plenty of Mallards,
and some Canada Geese.  We saw a small group of
Pied-billed Grebes diving close to the trail, a few
Western Grebes, two female Northern Shovelers and a
few Northern Pintails.

Later we saw a small flock of Red-winged Blackbirds,
lots of Robins, and two or three of what we think were
Hermit Thrushes.  Yellow-rumped Warblers and
White-throated Sparrows were everywhere.

By the way, we both thought that at least some of the
Red-winged blackbirds looked more like the Bicolored
variety that are found only (as far as I know) in
California.  Their wing patches seemed redder (less
orangey) than what we are used to seeing here, and we
didn't see any yellow.  Even their vocalizations
seemed a little "off."  Later, we saw Red-winged
blackbirds that seemed to be more "normal" (we saw the
yellow on the wing patches and they sounded "right").

Surely we were mistaken about the first group. 
Perhaps we were tired ...

Steve Bachman
Joann Pfeiffer

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