mocosocoBirds

4 White-winged Scoters, 18 Horned Grebes at Lake Parsippany

White-winged Scoters, Horned Grebes at Lake Parsippany, NJ, Nov. 6, 2014 (photo by Jonathan Klizas)

The photo above may look like a gray scale or black-and-white image, but that is the result when attempting a long-distance photograph of 4 White-winged Scoters and basic-plumaged Horned Grebes on a dreary, rainy morning at Lake Parsippany.

Besides the scoters and 18 Horned Grebes, Lake Parsippany has its largest waterfowl collection of the season with 2 Gadwall, 10 Bufflehead, 4 Hooded and 14 Common Mergansers and 48 Ruddy Ducks.

The weather front passing through the eastern United States created waterbird fallout conditions in parts of New Jersey today.

In a steady rain, the north end of Boonton Reservoir had a raft consisting of 20 Gadwall, 82 Ruddy Ducks, 5 Horned Grebes and 22 American Coots.

727 Ruddy Ducks at Mt. Hope Lake

What may be the second highest recorded total at Mt. Hope Lake, 727 Ruddy Ducks, was tallied this morning during the rain. 900 were counted on Oct. 27, 2013 and remains the all-time high count for Morris County. The lake did not attract any storm related waterfowl. Observed in difficult visibility were 60 Mute Swans, the continuing, uncountable Trumpeter Swan (more about this is in a future post), 52 Gadwall, 4 American Wigeon, 10 Mallards, 2 Northern Shovelers, 10 Ring-necked Ducks, 1 Bufflehead, 3 Hooded Mergansers, 727 Ruddy Ducks, 1 Double-crested Cormorant, 2 Great Blue Herons and 1 of the (probable) resident Bald Eagles.

Lake Hopatcong is the largest lake in New Jersey. Why those storm-driven scoters and grebes pass by this big body of water is a mystery. Most of the following birds, except the majority of Mute Swans who were south of Brady Road, were at Lake Forest, the north end of the lake: 87 Mute Swans, 4 Gadwall, 2 American Wigeon, 37 Mallards, 40 Ring-necked Ducks, 25 Bufflehead, 2 Hooded Mergansers, 14 Ruddy Ducks, 2 Pied-billed Grebes, 1 American Coot.

20 Horned Grebes at Lake Musconetcong

9 of 20 Horned Grebes at Lake Musconetcong, NJ, Nov. 6, 2014 (photograph by Jonathan Klizas)

With the help of Mike Hiotis, 20 Horned Grebes were counted at Lake Musconetcong today. Also present were 2 Pied-billed Grebes, 4 Bufflehead, 4 Hooded Mergansers, 57 Ruddy Ducks, 5 American Coot and the usual Double-crested Cormorants, Mute Swans and Mallards. The 2 Redheads and Lesser Scaup seen at the lake yesterday are gone.

3 Snow Buntings continue at Budd Lake

The 3 Snow Buntings of Budd Lake spent their 3rd known day foraging in the grasses of the municipal beach at the south end of the lake. Yesterday’s post with photos is here. More waterfowl is in the lake today as well: 15 Mute Swans, 6 Gadwall, 2 Lesser Scaup, 27 Bufflehead, 180 Ruddy Ducks and 2 Horned Grebes.

In all of the lakes surveyed in this post,  45 Horned Grebes and 1,108 Ruddy Ducks were observed on Morris County lakes today.

@mocosocoBirds at Twitter is another communications stream. Instant field reports and links of interest are tweeted throughout the day. The latest tweets appear on the sidebar of this page. One can follow mocosocoBirds at Twitter or link to @mocosocoBirds.

View eBird checklists and other data at the following links.
Click on the Checklists tab of the BirdTrax applet to display the most recent checklists. Click on this icon,  ,to view the contents of the checklist:

• Morris
• Somerset

Snow Bunting, Budd Lake, NJ, Nov. 5, 2014 (photo by Jonathan Klizas)

(Click on the photo for a larger image.)

A heavily cropped, noisy photo on an increasingly dark and cloudy, late afternoon is the best one could do with the above Snow Bunting at Budd Lake. Three Snow Buntings, found yesterday by Alan Boyd, continue on the municipal beach at the south end of the lake. They are on the water’s edge either on the sand (see another heavily cropped photo below) or on some rocky sections of the beach. Occasionally, they lift off and fly around the beach and over the water, eventually returning to the same location along the edge of the beach.

The lake has a growing number of waterfowl: 20 Gadwall, 4 American Wigeon and 46 Ruddy Ducks. The 14 Ring-billed Gulls present today will grow into the hundreds and possibly thousands of mostly Herring and Ring-billed Gulls later in the autumn and into the winter with Great Black-backed Gulls in much lesser numbers. Lesser Black-backed Gull is an annual visitor here. Glaucous Gull and Bonaparte’s Gulls are also recorded at Budd Lake.

Snow Buntings, Budd Lake, NJ, Nov. 5, 2014 (photo by Jonathan Klizas)

A male and female Redhead at Lake Musconetcong are the first of the season in Morris and Somerset Counties. Also on the lake this afternoon were 4 Lesser Scaup, 6 Hooded Mergansers, 2 Ruddy Ducks, 1 Pied-billed Grebe and the usual Canada Geese, Mallards Mute Swans, Double-crested Cormorants and Ring-billed Gulls.

Mitch Van Beekum photographed the following Bald Eagle at Lake Musconetcong on November 2.

View eBird checklists and other data at the following links.
Click on the Checklists tab of the BirdTrax applet to display the most recent checklists. Click on this icon,  ,to view the contents of the checklist:

• Morris
• Somerset