Riverfront Landing 1/14 Canvasback

Canvasbacks in the rain

I dropped Shari off at the Toms River bus station this morning and despite the soaking rain, made a run over to nearby Riverfront Landing.  Peering through the rain-streaked car window I saw a couple of Mallards and a Bufflehead and way out the water some duck-like forms. Undeterred by the annoying precipitation, I walked to the end of the little park to check out those ducks and found them to more Buffleheads and a raft of Ruddy Ducks. Not what I wanted.

Now that I was out of the car it was in for a dime in for a dollar. I decided to walk back up aptly-named Water Street to a marina where ducks like to gather. There I found many more Mallards, Lesser Scaup, one Ring-necked drake, and finally, out beyond the boats, a good-sized flock of Canvasbacks. (Completely off topic, but aren't boxers who are always getting knocked out also called "canvasbacks"?) It is another mystery why this location is so reliable for these ducks. Later the ducks moved closer to the pier I was viewing them from, until a work boat lifted the flock up and moved them back to where I was parked. That's where I managed to get the good for i.d. photo above.

After that I went home and resumed watching the feeders where there was, as we used to say in Brooklyn, bupkus, except for the recurring Pine Warbler.

11 species (+1 other taxa)
Canada Goose  22
Mallard  100
American Black Duck x Mallard (hybrid)  1
Canvasback  25
Ring-necked Duck  1   
Lesser Scaup  25
Bufflehead  20
Ruddy Duck  25
Ring-billed Gull  50
Herring Gull  1
Blue Jay  1    Heard
Song Sparrow  1