Birds Wintering in the Chesapeake

Message from the Cap’n is a compilation of fishing advice, waterman and weather insights, Chesapeake lore, and ordinary malarkey from the folks who keep their feet wet in the Potomac and St. Mary’s rivers.

The Cap’n

Winter arrives in the Chesapeake!

From the Interpretive Buoy System: The lower Potomac water temperature hovers around 42 degrees Fahrenheit and the salinity falling from 16 parts per unit in early January into February as the Chesapeake Bay continues through its coldest time of year.

While winter sends some of the Chesapeake Bay wildlife to warmer climes, the bay remains active throughout the season with many different ducks and birds wintering in the Chesapeake.

Some of the ducks that visit the lower Potomac and its tributaries in the fall and winter include some listed below and described in Ducks.org and AllAboutBirds.org:

Buffleheads, locally called “dippers,” are usually the first ducks to arrive. They fly like they are in a playful mood.

Common Goldeneye, or “whistler,” is the smartest duck we try to hunt in Southern Maryland.

Ruddy, also known as “iron-head,” gets its local name because it is hard to kill.

Scaup, or “black-head,” is usually a visitor after the hunting season goes out. Scaups gather in massive flocks and are more prevalent up the Potomac by the bridge.

Common loon migrate through the Chesapeake Bay in the spring and are great fishers.

Scooters provide great pass-shooting along the shores of the Cheasapeake. Males are black with orange spot at the bill and females are grey with a black cap.

An interesting resident around the Chesapeake: Bald eagles are here year-round:

Bald eagles protect about a mile of shoreline or territory, explains ThoughtCo.com. They nest in the winter and have a varied diet.

The bald eagles are easier to spot in the fall and winter after the osprey have left to overwinter in South America. This seemingly influx of eagles is really simply because eagles and ospreys get along like the Hatfields and McCoys. The eagles tend to take a backstage during the ospreys’ nesting season in the Chesapeake. But once the ospreys have left, bald eagles often perch in vacated osprey nests and have been known to take nesting material from those nests and use it in their own nests.

Till next time, remember “It’s Our Bay, Let’s Pass It On.”

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