Ice at Lake Musconetcong, NJ, Nov. 19, 2014 (iPhone photo by Jonathan Klizas)

The image above is looking southwest from the Washington St. park area of Lake Musconetcong at 4:15 p.m. Ice extends from the shore in the foreground to the peninsula with Norway Spruces and across the lake to the Sussex County side. It is November 19 and an aria from Samuel Barber’s opera Vanessa comes to mind. It is aptly titled: “Must the winter come so soon”.

Just beyond the ice at Lake Musconetcong was the largest congregation this season of Hooded Mergansers in the mocosocoBirds region, 53.

The recent cold weather has increased the number of and diversity of duckage in the Morris area. 6 Canvasback were found at Lake Parsippany this afternoon (Julie Buechner) along with 11 Bufflehead, 14 Hooded and 28 Common Mergansers, 21 Ruddy Ducks a Pied-billed Grebe.

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