Sitting at my usual place watching the sunrise I was struck by a large number of ducks floating off the Watch Hill Lighthouse point. I was pretty sure they were Scoters – both Black and Surf mixed in with some Common Eiders and Red-breasted Mergansers. I hadn’t seen that many ducks out there recently, so I decided to post to eBird. That is when I discovered that these ducks that I’ve seen at least a few days a week all winter long were now categorized as Infrequent. Which means I have write a comment about them in order to report them. That’s no big deal.
The big deal is after three months of birding my usuals were no longer. My bird universe is changing. I’ve been told it would, I knew it, but this was a real wake up call.
Spring is coming.
There will be new birds, there will be old ones wearing new clothes (breeding plumage) and I will be saying goodbye, at least for the time being, to some old friends. Friends I have started to take for granted.
Like so much of life – you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.
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