Ashley Ponds, Holyoke

The frigid, freezing weather kept numbers down to 7 people for this venture.  At the main gate, the first of many Wood Ducks were studied in the thick lily pads that covered the shallow cove.  Just across the road, beneath a high canopy of pines, was a hidden pond that held a big surprise, two ducks of different sizes, the smaller one a female Green-winged Teal and the other a female Northern Shoveler. They stuck together as if mated, but they were only temporary mates. The large coves farther along held mostly Wood Ducks and Mallards, but a little patient searching revealed a pair of Ring-necked Ducks, a Pintail, and a Pied-billed Grebe. A large flock of Yellowrumps and some Palm Warblers gathered seed at the edges of the pond and a flock of Red-winged Blackbirds stalked the muddy edges and the exposed lily pads.  A Bald Eagle arrived as the fog finally cleared, and later it caught and ate a fish before our eyes.  Other birds at the far end of the main pond were a single Rusty Blackbird, a lone Phoebe, a Merlin mobbed by a flock of crows, and a calling Killdeer.