Date: 4/21/24 1:33 pm From: Jon Benedetti <jon.benedetti...> Subject: Re: Hooded Mergansers with ducklings in Wood County
Very interesting!
On Sun, Apr 21, 2024 at 4:31 PM Terry Bronson <birdsbybronson...>
wrote:
> Call me flabbergasted. This morning, April 21, I encountered not 1, but 2,
> broods of Hooded Merganser ducklings in Wood County at the Southern Highway
> Wetlands, a swampy area at Mineral Wells, WV on the east side of I-77 about
> 0.2 mile south of WV Route 14, viewable from Old WV Route 21. I have found
> this species at this location during April for the last 3 years.
>
> One brood had 3 very small recently-hatched ducklings. The other had 12
> somewhat-larger ducklings. Both were being shepherded by a hen; a male was
> nearby. I attempted to get photos, but the birds were distant, there were
> many intervening dead trees and logs, it was a gloomy day, and the birds'
> brownish plumage blended in with the muddy water, so I was unsuccessful.
>
> The Second Atlas of Breeding Birds in West Virginia shows only a handful
> of breeding records in the Allegheny Mountains. Cornell University's Birds
> of the World indicates the species does not breed in this area, though
> apparently it did in the time of John James Audubon in the early 1800s.
>
> I did find a few 20th Century records in eBird, where there are a couple
> of old records in Mason County reported in the Brooks Bird Club "The
> Redstart" on May 19, 1956 at Point Pleasant (most likely at McClintic WMA)
> and on May 6, 1961 at McClintic--both of 8 juveniles.
>
> There is also a record of 7 juveniles with an adult female at Ashton in
> Mason County from May 3-21, 1981, reported in "Birds of the Lower Ohio
> River Valley in West Virginia."
>
> This is an exciting development, and possibly unprecedented in the modern
> era for this area of the state.
>
> Terry Bronson
> Marietta, OH
>
