Open Water at Hammond Pond

Red-Tailed Hawk

I was able to stop by Hammond Pond for a few minutes and was able to catch the pond open with just a little ice clinging to the edges. While I've been missing a good New England snow this winter, it certainly has made for some good birding at the local ponds. With 150 Canada geese to go through there were a number of mallards, common mergansers, and hooded mergansers. I was lucky that a couple of hooded mergansers and ring-necked ducks were quite close to the overlook close to City Sports and offered some great views before they became too shy. My best find of the day was a black-backed gull floating out in the middle of the pond. Normally the gulls here are all ring-billed and herring gulls, so this one was certainly a surprise. Right as I left, a red-tailed hawk came soaring in over the parking lot and spooking some starlings before settling on a branch overlooking Star Market.