Barrow's Goldeneye, Assabet River, Maynard - YES! (03/10/10)

After getting done with my day volunteering at Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary in Lincoln, I decided to try my luck with seeing the reported male and female Barrow's in Maynard. I wasn't expecting too much, considering my recent luck, or lack thereof, in trying to view the Tufted Duck in Sudbury/Wayland and the Eurasian Green-winged Teal in Concord. However, I guess 3rd time out in trying to find a rare duck is the charm. Both the male and female Barrow's are indeed on the Assabet River in behind the reddish/brick colored building that is right near the junction of 62 and 117 in Maynard. For added info, one of the companies that calls that building home is V Nanoptek.

I came from the east, taking 117 west. Take the first entrance you see into that office building on your left and drive all the way in behind the building. For reference, a Mobil gas station is directly opposite the office building at that intersection. There is a small path at the far right corner of the parking lot in back leading to that dammed section of the Assabet. For real excellent, up-close looks, you will need a spotting scope, for the 2 Barrow's seem to like to hang out by the bend along the right-hand shore as you are looking out onto the Assabet. However, the ducks were close enough that I could definitely tell with my 10x50 Nikon binocs that they were indeed the Barrow's in question. The white crescent near the base off the bill on the drake is readily visible from such a distance with binocs. Oh, I almost forgot, the time I observed the Barrow's was from 12:55 to 1:15 pm, and they had been seen earlier in the day around 8 am by John and Audrey of Wayland.

Good luck and happy birding to those who venture out to see these beautiful diving ducks!

Location:     Assabet River, junction of 62 & 117, Maynard, MA
Observation date:     3/10/10
Notes:     The male and female Barrow's have been reported since yesterday via Massbird.org. Besides my observation, they were also seen this morning by fellow birders. For real good looks, one will need a spotting scope, but these 2 diving ducks can still be readily identified with binocs (I use 10x50 Nikons).
Number of species:     2

Canada Goose - Branta canadensis     5
Barrow's Goldeneye - Bucephala islandica     2

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/massaudubon/)