First shad. During the first week of April, a buck shad was taken at Easton, PA, and small bands of shad (“pods”) were swimming upriver on the PA side, a mile above New Hope.

To put the 2003 shad migration in perspective: Narrowsburg is at River Mile 290 (measured from the mouth of the Delaware River); Easton is at River Mile 184; New Hope is at River Mile 149. And the head of tidewater, at Trenton Falls, is at River Mile 133.

This column will update the shad migration each week. With lower water levels and warmer water temperatures, shad sightings should pick up.

	TRR photo by Ed Wesely A pair of mergansers during the April 7 snowstorm. (Click for larger image)

“Common mergansers.” The Narrowsburg Eddy continues as a way-station for common mergansers, most of whom migrate farther north, leaving just a few birds to nest in this part of the river basin.

Look for common mergansers on the river for several more weeks. Males are large ducks with distinctive white sides and breasts, with long narrow beaks adapted for catching fish. Females have gray bodies and sides, and brownish crested heads. Many of these birds will be diving for fish.

Males will disappear during the summer, leaving females to tend young birds—often a dozen or more—in the river’s coves and shallows. Young males are dun-colored, like females.