Saturday, January 21, 2023

A Landfill, a Pond, a Park, and a Quarry ~ January 21, 2023

Every quarter or so, Waste Management leads a walk into the Grand Central Landfill near Pen Argyl. I was part of the group on their 11 AM walk. Unfortunately, the walk did not include a vantage point where you could check out the gulls while on the ground. The only gulls seen were ones that were circling over the landfill, so there were no unusual gull species identified. Notable birds seen there included around 6 Bald Eagles, 13 Common Ravens, and a Cooper's Hawk.
I drove down the hill on Pen Argyl Road and stopped to check the north side of the landfill to see if I could see any gulls from there. Again, they were not visible, but I did see a male American Kestrel and a Belted Kingfisher in the small impoundment there.
I drove over to the Albert Road ponds and found 8 Common Mergansers, 7 Ring-necked Ducks, and a Cackling Goose among the 250 Canadas on the private north pond.
From there, I made the very short drive over to Ballas Park. It was the middle of the day, so I didn't expect to see much, especially since it was pretty windy. However, I did find a couple American Tree Sparrows and four Field Sparrows.
On the way back home, I stopped at the Nazareth Quarry. The quarry held around 6000 Snow Geese, 89 Ruddy Ducks, 21 American Coots, 11 Buffleheads, 9 Common Mergansers, 5 Redheads, 3 American Black Ducks, a Greater Scaup, a Lesser Scaup, and a Pied-billed Grebe. Two Eastern Bluebirds were in the woods at the edge of the quarry.

No comments:

Post a Comment