Riverfront Landing 1/6--American Black Duck

After dropping Shari off at the bus station, I took a quick look at the nearby Toms River waterfront, where Canvasbacks are reliable, but not today. Large, unwieldy boats with booms and float were spread out on the water, doing what I don't know, but obviously they discouraged most of the ducks. There were a couple of hundred Mallards in among the marina boats and in among those Mallards were a few Ruddy Ducks and my FOY American Black Duck. Then it started to rain, again, and I headed home.

Now the "Arctic Vortex" is heading our way, so it will be back to monitoring the feeders. I hate winter.
I did a quick analysis of my Feederwatch statistics so far this year to a comparable period last year and found that birds at our feeders are down 21 1/2% so far. No easy explanation presents itself. However, our two rarities, Pine Warblers, keep hanging around, attracted to peanut butter and surprisingly, today, I saw the male at the black oil sunflower seed feeder.

Let me know when you're sick of looking at Pine Warbler photos. I'm glad to have them around, breaking up the monotony of the all the little black and gray birds in the yard.

Pine Warbler Male

Pine Warbler, probable first year female