A wild duck chase, and an unassisted walk

That grin on my face emerged with that gesture of triumph this morning at the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm, where for the first time in many months I went birding on my own two feet, without a cane.

Since troubles with my knees crossed into acute territory over the summer, I’ve been trying hard to regain my normal gait and wean myself from walking with a cane. This morning was the first time I tried it at the Pole Farm, strolling a little over a mile roundtrip on one of my favorite trails, the one that goes through an alley of trees on the way to an observation deck and the stretch of woods connecting the Pole Farm and Reed Bryan Farm.

I went through the alley and thought about turning around, but the sun was shining and I decided to go a bit farther, setting my sights on edge of the woods another several hundred yards up the trail. I was rewarded with spotting an Eastern meadowlark in one of the fields and getting a fair side view of a Northern flicker, not to mention lots of robins.

I turned around from there and made my way back to the car, only taking one short break to sit on a bench. I’ll continue to build up my endurance, and I’m hoping warm weather in the spring — plus the allure of migrating warblers — will take me deeper into the trails in the coming months.

Scaup patrol: Round 2

If today’s birding theme was slow and steady, yesterday’s was sprint. My friend Laura texted me once we got a report of a greater scaup — unusual if not rare in these parts — spotted on the Delaware River at an overlook off Interstate 295 at Trenton.

Laura soon drove us to the overlook, and once we parked we saw nothing but wide open water. No sign of a scaup, greater or lesser, not even a single gull overhead in an area where they often swarm. After a few minutes, I spied two common mergansers diving on the far side of the river, and as we drove off I wasn’t sure I should even bother filing an eBird report.

But wait! As we rolled past the overhead pedestrian bridge, through the bare trees Laura spotted birds and stopped the car on the shoulder. Three scaup-like birds — two males and a female — were swimming along with a good number of ring-necked ducks.

We didn’t confirm a scaup ID on scene, and both of us had a lot of things to do so we turned toward home.

When I got my photos up on screen at home, sure enough, the three mystery birds were scaups, but an even tougher question arose: greater or lesser?

The birders who spotted the greater scaup shared a photo on GroupMe, and after a lot of Googling and cogitating I concluded, somewhat tentatively, that they had indeed spotted a greater scaup while ours were lessers.

This was my second go-round with scaups, and it appears I’ll need to wait until another time to add a greater to my life list.

It took me more than half a year to shed the cane. I’ll take that greater scaup in stride whenever it reveals itself.