Let's Visit a Sewage Treatment Plant

It has been a while since we've visited a sewage treatment plant, but we learned that a nice group of ducks had been sited in nearby Comfort, Texas, so off we went.  It may seem odd, but sewage treatment plants are often a great place to find birds. Some have large final-treatment ponds that are full of vegetation and insects, so birds love them!

There are three large ponds at this site, and as we approached the first we saw a group of Hooded Mergansers. These are some of our favorite ducks, as the males are spectacular.

Hooded Merganser - male

The female Hooded Merganser looks very different, but she also has a snappy hairdo.

Hooded Merganser - pair

It turned out that there was a flock of about 50, but they decided to fly to the other end of the pond just as we arrived!

Let's get out of here!

A nearby group of Northern Shovelers decided to follow.

Northern Shovelers

So with all of the ducks safely 500' away, we ended up doing a little long-range bird watching. We identified some Lesser Scaup and Buffleheads (both are species of ducks).  The Bufflehead male can be confused with the Hooded Merganser male as they have a similar white crescent on their head. But the Bufflehead has a striking white body.

Lesser Scaup (left) and Bufflehead (right)

There were a few Green-winged Teal males. These are among the smallest ducks in North America.

Green-winged Teal

We found a couple of introduced species as well. A pair of escaped Egyptian Geese and a large pesky rodent called a Nutria. Nutria are known for burrowing into banks and levees and those burrows can cause problems. 

Egyptian Goose

Nutria

It is still surprisingly warm here in Texas (upper 70's during the afternoon) so we are continuing to see butterflies. We saw a lovely Gulf Fritillary on a purple thistle flower.

Gulf Fritillary

We looked a bit more closely and realized that there were three other butterflies feeding on that single blossom!  Not too many flowers available on December 9th for all of these butterflies.

Four butterflies on a single blossom

We are expecting a hard freeze here in the next couple of days, so we'll be seeing fewer butterflies in the coming weeks.

Mark