Lake of the Lilies 2/5--American Coot

American Coot

A little jaunt up to Pt. Pleasant Beach yesterday. For a moment, it was a head-scratcher how American Coot came up as a year-bird on my eBird list so late in the year until I realized that I hadn't been to either Pt Pleasant or the Manasquan Reservoir (the other site I'm sure to see flocks of them) this year. There were plenty of them there, more than the 75 the eBird filter would swallow, but I had no interest in making a 1 x 1 count of diving birds. With diving ducks, grebes, loons, or coots, I always figure that at any given time, about 1/3 of them are under water. 

Redheads (drakes & hens) with coots

Last month, when I was at Lake Carasaljo, I saw one Redhead and I was very happy to find it. Redheads can be a hard get in-county. Ironically, the first ducks I saw at LotL were Redheads, lots of them. Again, diving ducks, but I figured at least 50. But the quantity didn't surpass the quality of the initial find. I was more interested, though, in the 10 Canvasbacks, drakes and hens, that were in the middle of the lake. That's another duck you have to seek out, and LotL isn't usually one of the seeking sites. 

Canvasbacks

Surprisingly, there were no wigeon there, which means I may have lost my opportunity for Eurasian Wigeon which had been a long-staying visitor there since early in the winter. After viewing the lake from 3 sides, I steeled myself for some time on the jetty at Manaquan Inlet. I managed an hour of seawatching, enough time to prove to myself, yet again, that I am either a bad at standing still in one place or that I am unlucky at finding birds on the water--probably a combination of both since what I saw (aside from Red-throated Loon which went as a county bird) was dull compared to the alcids (Razorbills & Dovekies) that another (better/luckier) birder found flying by the jetty earlier that morning. 

My list from Lake of the Lilies, the more interesting of the two:

21 species
Canada Goose  50
Mute Swan  40
Gadwall  15
Mallard  60
American Black Duck  5
Canvasback  10
Redhead  50
Lesser Scaup  49
Hooded Merganser  30
Ruddy Duck  25
Mourning Dove  10
American Coot  75
American Herring Gull  15
Great Black-backed Gull  5
Double-crested Cormorant  1
Great Egret  1
European Starling  10
Northern Mockingbird  3
House Sparrow  20
Song Sparrow  2
Red-winged Blackbird  1