Albert Road Ponds, Nazareth Quarry, and the Forks of the Delaware ~ February 4, 2023

Yesterday, Adam Miller found a male Canvasback at the Albert Road ponds. I figured the ponds would likely be frozen after last night, but I decided to check it out this afternoon anyway. The main pond was the only one with a small opening in the ice, which contained a Ring-necked Duck and 2 Lesser Scaup. Among the Canada Geese on the ice were 6 Ring-billed Gulls and 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

Lesser Black-backed Gulls

Six Eastern Bluebirds and a Hairy Woodpecker were seen nearby.

The Canvasback had moved on, but I thought there might be a chance that it dropped into the Nazareth Quarry, which rarely freezes up, so I stopped there. I did a pretty thorough search to no avail, but I did find 52 Ruddy Ducks, 16 Buffleheads, 14 American Black Ducks, 15 Common Mergansers, 7 American Coots, a Ring-necked Duck, and a Pied-billed Grebe among around 8,000 Snow Geese, plus a calling 'fly-by' Common Raven.

My last stop was the "Forks of the Delaware" in Easton to see if there were any gulls on the icy Lehigh and Delaware Rivers. As I was driving past the toll bridge, I noticed a Bald Eagle circling over it and about 50 gulls over Scott Park, which were likely scared into flight. Near the 3rd Street Bridge, I spotted a slender bird perched on a communication tower. That turned out to be an immature Peregrine Falcon. The bird had silver bands on both legs. It did some wing, tail, and leg stretching as I took photos of it while sunset approached.

Peregrine Falcon

It scratched its head, showing off one of its bands while probably trying to identify which subspecies of human was taking its photo. The last bird of the day ended up being the best bird of the day.

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