Wandering around the waterfront, or just gazing out the window; there’s usually something going on. So far this morning, it has been seagulls wishing for fish they can’t reach. Apparently, food is visible swimming around under the thin ice; but I didn’t see a gull catch one.
They seemed irritable – and who could blame them? After a cold night they are hungry. The gulls are of different sizes – and species, of course – but backlit by the sun, they are all indistinguishably grey and white. If they land on firm ice, they flutter down slowly, and often slide awkwardly to a stop. Where ice is thinner, they plop right in.
Gulls swim back and forth at the edge of the ice looking, hoping. Some of the bigger birds are burning lots of energy chasing smaller ones around in circles.
The usual family of five crows flies back and forth over the cove. One landed hopefully on mudflats covered with thin, clear ice, before flying on with the others. The three of a different family hop around on the lawn.
Sometimes the two groups chase and harass, but this cold morning they are saving energy. I can’t hear them, but I bet there is some crow discussion about boundaries.
Out beyond the skim ice, a few bufflehead ducks dive for fish. They are small triangular ducks, tapered from their high heads to the tips of their tails touching the water.
Males have white sides and a big white patch above and behind the eye. That must be the “buffle.” Females have just a “tear spot” of white behind the eye. They will head north in spring to find tree cavities to nest in.
The other common ducks, here in the upper Damariscotta River, are the dabblers. Black ducks and mallards are long-bodied with tails level with their backs. Both species have wide bills for dabbling for small creatures on the bottom.
Have you ever seen a duck swallow a big snail? The doomed snail becomes a round bulge that slowly goes down the duck’s slender neck. Gaaak!
Mallard males are the familiar green-headed duck with white collar and two perky little curled tail feathers. Females may be confused with black ducks, except they have white tails and throats. Black ducks are brown to black, except for a tiny whitish bar sometimes visible near the back of the wing.
The markings that help me most are that black ducks have no white showing, and their cheeks and throats are obviously lighter brown than the rest of the duck.
Geese abound. They have been practicing flying in V’s. From a ragged start, they seem to be figuring it out. The reward is the help of the air current from the bird in front. As the ice increases, so does their hunger. Many fly south, but if they can get a human hand-out, they may stay.
One more common bird here: the eagle! They chase the ducks. I suppose they catch one once in a while, or they wouldn’t keep trying.
I watched one sitting on a small, seaweed-covered rock, combing the weed with its talons to find and eat a small dead fish. The pairs stay loosely in touch all winter. For the first time, last week they sat together at the top of a pine tree.
That’s a good enough sign for me that we wheel toward spring.
(Nancy Holmes prowled Linekin Neck in Boothbay as a child, then an Illinois bottomland while earning a master’s degree in wildlife management. Once back in Maine, she raised children and kept assorted animals, wild and domestic. She and her Carolina dog roam their woods in Newcastle. Write to Holmes at castlerock@tidewater.net.)
