Visitors from the Frozen North

We were recently treated to a visit from a species that breeds in Nanook-of-the-North country:  namely, the red-throated loon.  This pair, probably a plighted couple, has been right below the Amelia Earhart dam for a couple of days.  We tend to think of migration as a thing that brings us birds in the spring and sends them home in the fall.  But while we're "north" for all those birds in the tropics, we're also "south" for birds of the higher latitudes.  And like typical snowbirds, they might like somewhere a bit more balmy for the winter months.  The red-throated loon apparently ranges an enormous distance in its escape from the winter Arctic -- even as far as the Yucatan. By those lights, we're not all that far south.  And heck, lately we haven't been all that balmy.

Water Hazard

In the winter especially, I usually take a walk by the Mystic most Sundays.  Winter birding means waterfowl, and waterfowl means the Mystic.  So the Mystic offers plenty of birding interest.  But there's a disconcerting side to this.  As we well know, the Mystic is one of the most polluted and degraded rivers in Massachusetts.  And any creature like this swan that gets its breakfast, lunch and dinner from the muck at the bottom is likely to be the first to suffer for it.  This is actually the second dead swan I've seen this month.  I have no idea what's killing them, but it ain't predation.  Any bird taking fish or weeds from the water -- all the birds I spend my time watching, in other words -- are running some kind of risk.

But how can they know? It's obvious to us from the rubbish littering the banks and shallows, the conspicuous outfall pipes with their stern warnings, the industrial vistas on the lower river.  But to birds it's just water:  perfect for swimming in, perfect for hunting in, perfect for drinking.