The basin also held 6 Northern Shovelers, 2 Gadwall, 4 American Wigeon, 16 Redheads, around 150 Ring-necked Ducks, 4 Greater Scaup, 2 Lesser Scaup, 14 Buffleheads, 3 Common Mergansers, around 125 Ring-billed Gulls, an American Herring Gull, and a Savannah Sparrow along the edge.
I headed to the Nazareth Quarry to see what might be there. I scoped along the near left edge of the quarry and found a group of 15 Green-winged Teal. I noticed that the one had a horizontal white bar along the wings, but there wasn't any vertical white bar. That's when it hit me that it was a Common Teal, the "Eurasian" form of a Green-winged Teal! It would be the 1st Northampton County record! I had looked through hundreds of Green-winged Teal looking for this bird, and it had finally happened. I had a terrible time trying to get any decent photos of it since it could only be seen when looking down through the near brush on the other side of the fence. Eventually, I got something good enough to prove the identification and then sent out a text to others, hoping that someone else would confirm it and maybe get some better photos. That's when Stephen Kloiber just happened to show up within minutes without knowing about my find. He was able to get some videos of it through his scope. I ended up with these poor, long-distance documentation photos.
Several other birders made it there before dark to see the bird. Other notables found there included 6000 Snow Geese, one Tundra Swan, 5 Northern Shovelers, 4 Gadwall, 2 American Wigeon, 3 American Black Ducks, 8 Redheads, 18 Ring-necked Ducks, 5 Greater Scaup, 16 Buffleheads, 6 Common Mergansers, around 50 Ruddy Ducks, 13 American Coots, 4 Horned Grebes, and 3 Pied-billed Grebes. At dusk, as we were ready to leave, Adam spotted an Eastern Phoebe in the trees above us. It was our first one of the year.
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