Lake Carasaljo 1/18--Redhead

Ever in search of open water, I went to Lakewood's Lake Carasaljo (or, as I think of it, Lake Unpronounceable) this morning and found that about 500 geese had managed to keep approximately 1/10 of the lake (which is over a mile long) free of ice. In among the geese were a couple of swans, some Mallards, Ring-necked Ducks, and like yesterday at Marshall's Pond, a solo Bufflehead--and this time I looked really carefully. But it wasn't until I walked along the shore a little distance and came to the neat, recently installed pontoon bridge that crosses the lake that I found the duck I'd hoped to see. Mixed in with a slew of white domestic ducks, geese, and one Muscovy Duck (more on it below), was a Redhead, swimming right next to the bridge. 

Redheads are always a welcome sight, right up there with Canvasbacks in my duck pantheon, and I was especially happy because this sighting meant I didn't have to go to an out-of-the-way street in Brick and scan the flocks of scaup in Barnegat Bay for a distant Redhead or two. Last year I got lucky when I found a couple of these ducks floating along off Bay Parkway in Waretown, but they were, as usual, too difficult to photograph. 

I walked up to Route 9 without seeing anything beyond big flocks of Ring-billed Gulls sitting on the ice and few geese munching on a challah someone had thrown on the shore. I returned to the bridge where a young woman was intently watching the ducks. She immediately pointed out the Muscovy Duck to me and asked me what wrong with it. 

"Nothing," I said, "They're just extraordinarily ugly ducks."

"No, no," she said, "There's something wrong with its bill." 

Here's where the really looking comes in. I was pretty sure this was the same Muscovy Duck I'd seen last month which had waddled up to me and tried to untie my boot laces and since Muscovy Ducks are not "countable" I didn't give it much of a look. But indeed, she was right, the top section of its bill was gone and its tongue clear to see resting on the bottom bill. 

"These birds are sometimes not kind to each other," I told her as we watched three gulls squabble over a slice of bread. It looked to me like the Muscovy was out of its element in the wilds of Lakewood.

More interesting to me was that the Redhead had disappeared. It being a diving duck, I gave it some time to come up to the surface, but it was gone. So, as often happens, my life line just happened to intersect with its life line at the right time--for me. 

I crossed over the bridge which leads to a more forested area of the park and then swung around over the rivulet of the Metedeconk River that feeds the lake without seeing much more of interest except for a Brown Creeper at the base of a tree. 

When I got back to my car a woman in the parking lot asked me if I'd seen anything "good."  I told her I'd seen a Redhead.

"Have you been to Lake of the Lilies?" she asked.

"Not recently."

"There are Redheads there."

"Yes, but now I don't have to go there, do I?"

Then she asked me about eagles. It was time to leave.