Primavera arrived to our Atlantic island on Friday, and I took my first Spring walk on Saturday at Prospect Park. I sought the quieter, wooded trails, where fewer people saunter.
Though I heard the calls of red-winged blackbirds, flame-crested cardinals and red-breasted American robins, there were still few birds in the old-growth forest, and the trees were not budding yet. To the eye, the forest seemed to be wintering still, even as Natura naturans must have been preparing it to spring.
It was in the smaller ponds, the hidden brooks, and the large lake where life was springing with joy.
In the highest pond, by the long meadow, there were Canadian geese and white swans, as expected.
But I spotted two persistent small ducks taking turns as they dove for insects. One would swim as the other dove. When the diver would emerge to swim, the swimmer would dive to feed.
They were distant from the shore, but I noticed their blue bills, glistening dark heads, and resplendent white flanks. I am pretty sure they were Aythya sp., but I could not tell for sure if they were ring-necked ducks (Aythya collaris) or lesser scaups (Aythya affinis).
By the sheer predominance of blue throughout the bills, my guess is that they were lesser scaups, perhaps resting as they migrate back from their winter refuge. For all I know, they were Thoreauvian saunterers progressing from Eastern dawn to Western eventide.
Either way, they were a new species to me and a source of delight in beauty. They were the small marvel, the surprising detail that somehow always pops-up in my ever-changing walks on the park.
Daniel G. Campos 