Clove Lakes Park 3/13--Ugly Ducks

A lot of Muscovy Duck genes here.

Mallard x ?

Shari had an appointment on Staten Island this morning, so I went along for the ride and walked around Clove Lakes Park for a couple of hours. This park has always had a large collection of truly ugly ducks--hybrids, mutants, sports, monsters, whatever you want to call them, they're there. Today, though, since I decided to take some pictures of them, there weren't as many as usual. Probably all the Mallards in the lakes and the couple of American Black Ducks I saw aren't "pure" either.

Of course, not all the ducks are ugly. These two are classic Long Island Ducks (think "AFLAC") and have probably spread their genes widely throughout the lake population.

While I didn't see anything new for the year, I did see (and hear) a lot. I ran into a group of birders and one of them told me that across the street from the park was a golf course with a pond that held some more interesting ducks and it was there I found Gadwalls, American Wigeons, and my Bird A Day entry, Green-winged Teal. I'm running through the winter water birds at a fair clip; so far about 1/3 of my entries have been ducks, geese, swans, coots and the like.

30 species for the day:

Species             Count

Canada Goose    100

Gadwall    3

American Wigeon    2

American Black Duck    2

Mallard    60

Green-winged Teal    2

Ruddy Duck    1

American Coot    3

Ring-billed Gull    20

Rock Pigeon    8

Mourning Dove    3

Red-bellied Woodpecker    1

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker    1

Downy Woodpecker    1

Blue Jay    1

American Crow    1

Black-capped Chickadee    3

Tufted Titmouse    1

White-breasted Nuthatch    1

Carolina Wren    2

American Robin    20

European Starling    3

Song Sparrow    1

White-throated Sparrow    10

Dark-eyed Junco    2

Northern Cardinal    6

Red-winged Blackbird    3

Common Grackle    1

Brown-headed Cowbird    3

House Sparrow    25

American Coot: not ugly, not a duck.