While searching for the Common Goldeneyes reported earlier in the day at Boonton Reservoir this afternoon, Simon Lane watched a Peregrine Falcon get the gulls up in flight and picked out a 1st year Iceland Gull in the vicinity of the Rockaway River Dam. Relocating the gull later in the day was futile but in so doing this author was able to watch a male Long-tailed Duck fly in to the reservoir and immediately disappear in the distant throng of Common Mergansers and Aythya spp. One Red-breasted Merganser was observed relatively closely (nothing at the south end of Boonton Reservoir is truly “close”) showing a distinctive thin, slightly up-curved bill and diffused chin-neck-chest area. Two weeks ago the reservoir was almost entirely frozen with little besides Geese and Gulls inhabiting the little unfrozen area of water near the island. While still mostly frozen, the growing area of thawed water has an increasing variety of waterfowl.
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From Jennifer Books:
My sister and I birded the Great Swamp this morning and saw most of the birds reported yesterday at the Friends Blind. They included 4 Wood Ducks, 7 American Wigeon, a pair of Gadwalls, a Hooded Merganser pair, 2 male Pintails, 5 Green-wing Teal, and a relatively large mixed flock of Mallards and Black Ducks. In addition, we noted a flock of 15 Red-winged Blackbirds and a Killdeer in the Lord Stirling stables equestrian field.