Puddle Ducks

Gadwall at Speedwell Village, Morristown, NJ, Jan. 26, 2014 (photo by Jonathan Klizas)

There are a few small patches of open water in frozen Morris County. The pond at Speedwell Village, across Speedwell Avenue from Speedwell Lake (which is actually a dammed portion of the Whippany River), has a fenced in pond which stays open longer than other bodies of water in the area. As the picture shows, it is clogged with Gadwalls in one corner. The small pond contained 8 Canada Geese, 27 Gadwall, 18 Mallards, 3 Ring-necked Ducks and 4 Hooded Mergansers.

Indian Lake in Denville has 2 small portions of water without ice. One small section was dominated by two Mute Swans and 5 Ring-billed Gulls. The other larger hole had 98 Canada Geese, 4 Mallards, 17 Ring-necked Ducks, 5 Lesser Scaup, 1 Common Merganser and… a Trumpeter Swan, originally found yesterday by Tom Gorman . No excitement needed. Due to the famed and fertile captive pair of Trumpeter Swans in Bernardsville, NO Trumpeter Swans in Morris and Somerset Counties are considered to be of natural wild origin. There will be more on this in tomorrow’s post.

Trumpeter Swan, Indian Lake, Denville, NJ, Jan. 26, 2014 (photo by J. Klizas)

Clyde Potts Reservoir in Mendham Township, not an easy body of water to view, has a fair sized opening in its mostly frozen surface. A Cackling Goose was found here by Mike Hiotis on January 19. There were 350 Canada Geese here this afternoon. All were mostly at rest on the ice at the edge of the open water. 1 Ring-necked Duck, 6 Common Mergansers and 2 Ruddy Ducks were also present.

Boonton Reservoir is completely frozen, as is nearby Lake Parsippany, but the water treatment tanks on Greenbank Rd. have the largest concentration of ducks found today in Morris County. Approximately 200 Mallards were floating in bliss as well as 3 Wood Ducks, 6 Gadwall and 2 American Black Ducks. Incidentally, it is not recommended to stop on Greenbank Road to observe the tanks, as there is a surprising amount of traffic on Sunday afternoons.

Water Treatment Plant, Boonton, NJ, Jan. 26, 2014 (photo by J. Klizas)

The eBird Trail Tracker machine at the Great Swamp NWR records a Rough-legged Hawk for today. It is the policy of mocosocoBirds to disregard reports from inanimate objects. So, unless a Homo sapiens knows otherwise, Rough-legged Hawks were not seen in the Great Swamp today. The highlight is a Gray Catbird found by Chris Thomas at the end of Whitebridge Road. Chris’s photo is below.

In Somerset County, Zach Batren’s Chipping Sparrow continues to show up at his feeder in Franklin Township.

As stated earlier, an article about Trumpeter Swans in the land of mocosocoBirds will post tomorrow.