Lake of the Lilies | Mathis Park 1/10--Wood Duck, Canvasback

Canvasbacks, Mathis Park

Today I methodically went looking for ducks--and geese. Did well with the ducks, getting my two favorites. Geese were another story.

I started the morning at Lake of Lilies, always a good winter spot for ducks. I was specifically trying to get my year Wood Duck. Wood Duck isn't that hard to find, but there weren't any at Colliers Mills the other day. Fortunately, after a cold snap, the weather was warm this morning and the lake was all open water. Mostly there were scaup on the water, both varieties, though more heavily of the Lesser variety, and quite a few Hooded Mergansers (which may be #3 on the duck hit parade). Toward the eastern end of the lake a big flock of Mallards was dabbling--both wild and a motley assemblage of domestic types. Mixed in with them, as it was late in December, was a fine looking drake Woodie.

Wood Duck  1    

Mallard  60

Mallard (Domestic type)  20

Greater Scaup  15

Lesser Scaup  125

Bufflehead  1

Hooded Merganser  21

Ruddy Duck  10

Pied-billed Grebe  1

American Coot  15

Ring-billed Gull  1

Herring Gull  50

Great Black-backed Gull  10

Double-crested Cormorant  3

Blue Jay  1    Heard

I stopped off at the Manasquan Inlet hoping for some activity but it was pretty quiet there--no Razorbills flying by or loafing off the jetty, no Purple Sandpipers on the rocks below. Both loons, some Long-tailed Ducks, gulls. The amusement of the day was watching three drift out of the inlet into the open water. They got pretty far out off the jetty. In my imagination one of the swans was saying to the other two, "Wait a minute! We're surrounded by loons and sea ducks. There's no food out here, the water's forty feet deep!" Because suddenly the trio picked up and flew back up the inlet toward the shallow end.

Then I drove up into Monmouth County trying for a couple of rare geese. Yesterday there was a Greater White-fronted Goose on Lake Como so I made that my first stop. There were 120 Ruddy Ducks on the water, but not a goose to be seen. Then. I was there around 10 o'clock. When I got back home this afternoon, I saw that around noon a big flock of geese was on the lake and among them was the Greater White-fronted. Obviously, they flew in after I left to go up to Lake Takanassee where I was hoping to find the Cackling Goose that has been reported on & off for a month. Again, no luck. There were only 60 or 70 Canada Geese to look through  and I looked at every one, so it is unlikely that I missed it. Bad timing and bad luck.

I figured I'd just go home but I saw that a friend of mine had my other favorite duck in South Toms River which is only a slight detour, so I went to Mathis Veterans Memorial Park and saw a dozen Canvasbacks floating in front of the houseboat. This was the third time this year I've looked for Canvasbacks in this very reliable location; the first two times I looked for them from Riverfront Landing, which is on the other side of Mathis, but because of the angles of the piers in the marina, it is sometimes impossible to see the ducks, even though you actually much closer to them than at Mathis. In any case, I got these, the largest of the North American diving ducks (really? Bigger than Common Merganser?) on my list. Even from a distance, they're an impressive duck. Canvasback also happened to be my 100th species for the year.

Nothing else of note on what is either the Toms River or an estuary. Surprisingly, no Ruddy Ducks that I could find which was odd, because both times at Riverfront, they were the predominant duck.

Mute Swan  2

Canvasback  12

Ring-necked Duck  1    with scaup

Lesser Scaup  9

Bufflehead  25

Ring-billed Gull  20

Herring Gull  30

Double-crested Cormorant  1