CHESAPEAKE'S WINTERING ICONS AT DUSK

      At dusk through winter, flock after flock of majestic tundra swans, Canada geese and northern pintail ducks lift off the shallow water of retention basins and fly into the wind in silhouetted, black lines and V's before cloudy skies or brilliant sunsets.  Those magnificent skeins of waterfowl are heading to harvested cornfields to shovel up corn kernels on the ground, or winter grain fields to pluck and ingest green shoots.  Or at dusk, those waterfowl species return to the shallow basins after stuffing themselves with corn and green shoots.  Either way, their flocks passing swiftly, and noisily, across orange or red, water color sunsets and turning into the wind to parachute down to the ground, or water, are majestically beautiful and exciting to see, and hear constantly calling to each other.  And the still water of those basins reflects the lovely sunsets and the birds whose silhouetted reflections race across the water's surface to meet each bird when it skis on its webbed feet onto the water for a landing.  

     Late in winter, I see the courtship flights of the lean, swift pintails.  Four or five drakes gather around a female to court her.  When she takes speedy flight, those males follow her across the sky, including at sunset.  The whole silhouetted, little gang of pintails races and twists aloft for a few minutes, and the drake who keeps up with her gets to be her mate.

     Every winter, I enjoy scenes like the one described above at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, just south of Cambridge, Maryland on Maryland's Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay.  I see, and hear, icons of the Chesapeake, and the Eastern Shore, including Tundra swans, Canada geese, pintails, ring-billed gulls, bald eagles, northern harriers, great blue herons and red-winged blackbirds, through the refuge's live cameras and our home computer screen.  

     To me, the prettiest time of day at Blackwater in winter is at sunset.  I see the green of loblolly pine woods and the golden-beige of fluffy-topped phragmites, and tall grasses, in the low-slanting sunlight.  

     And I see much bird activity at sunset as well.  The sky and retention basins are often full of a variety of birds at that time.  All that is fitting at the end of a lovely, sunny winter day in the marshes.   

     I also enjoy hearing the wind blowing, and the incessant whistling of the swans and the honking of the geese, day and night and whether on water or the ground, or in the air.  Their constant calling is exciting, especially when they take off from water or the ground, and are silhouetted black before striking, winter sunsets when speeding across the sky, group after inspiring group.

     Late in winter afternoons, I see long, loose lines of ring-billed gulls passing before sunsets.  Their flights are quiet, but their sheer numbers, like those of the waterfowl, are exciting to see as they flap swiftly, then glide gracefully before brilliant, winter sunsets to their nightly roosting places on mud flats and gravel bars. 

     Individuals, or pairs, of bald eagles are either perched in trees or osprey nests, or on the ground, where they are silhouetted handsomely before sunsets.  Some of those eagles will nest in trees at Blackwater.  

     I also see a few northern harriers coursing slowly and gracefully into the wind, low over tall grasses, as they look, and listen, for field mice to eat.  Sometimes, I see one working right up to sunset.  

     Occasionally, I spot a great blue heron stalking fish in shallow water right through sunset.  There the heron is, tall and stately, slowly, carefully moving forward, step by step, as it seeks to spy and catch its prey.  Suddenly the long neck lunges out and a victim might be snared in that lengthy, strong beak.

     Late in the afternoon, and into sunset, I see big flocks of red-winged blackbirds going to roost, possibly among phragmites.  Those hordes are also thrilling to witness at sunset each winter day.     

     These are some of the Chesapeake Bay's feathered icons in winter.  Those birds make beautiful viewings, particularly at sunset through winter.  

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