550 Ruddy Ducks were at Mt. Hope Lake in Rockaway Township this afternoon. That is a conservative number as certainly more were missed. For those not familiar with Mt. Hope Lake, it requires a spotting scope preferably with a zoom eyepiece. I am frequently maxed out to 60x when viewing this lake. The waterfowl like to congregate in the far northeast corner of the lake and also at the north end towards the entrance road to the Tilcon plant. The only viewing spot is at the end of Everment Road. Keep in mind that the lake and the entire perimeter of the lake is administered by the Rockaway Township Sportsmen Club. Unless you are a member, access to any of the trails around the lake is verboten. Please be respectful of that. We do not want to jeopardize access to what is the most productive body of water in Morris County.

550 Ruddys smashes the previous known Morris County eBird record of 330 set on October 27, 2012 at the same place. The Ruddys were certainly not lonely. Accompanying the Ruddys were 180 Ring-necked Ducks (RNDU). Again, this is a conservative, probable-undercount. While most of the RNDUs were in one manageable raft, others were resting, scattered among the distant Ruddys and difficult to get an exact count. 55 American Coot were easier to spot as they kept to themselves in the north end near the Phragmites stand. Here are the numbers:

Mute Swan – 21 (where have they all gone? 149 was the high count on June 3.)
Wood Duck – 2
Gadwall – 20
American Wigeon – 3
Mallard – 14
Green-winged Teal – 2
Ring-necked Duck – 180, at least
Lesser Scaup – 14
Bufflehead – 2
Ruddy Duck – 550, at least
Pied-billed Grebe – 3
Horned Grebe – 2
Double-crested Cormorant – 1
American Coot – 55

Mt. Hope must be a duck magnet because there sure was a paucity of waterfowl in other bodies of water in Morris County. Lake Musconetcong had 1 Common Merganser and 4 Bufflehead besides Ring-billed Gulls, 1 Herring Gull and the usual Mute Swans. Budd Lake had a Horned Grebe, 4 Lesser Scaup and 8 Ring-billed Gulls. Lake Parsippany had 3 Hooded Mergansers, Gulls, Geese and Swans. That is all.
=============================================
From Mike Newlon at Glenhurst Meadows:
Quiet. One Vesper Sparrow with Savannahs on the mound by the Silos. 1 Red-shouldered Hawk, 3 Hermit Thrushes in the hedgerows along the Passaic River. Only a few Swamps/Songs in the ‘sparrow swale’. Remarkably little tree damage.
Best – Mike Newlon