We'll stop posting merganser photos when they migrate north

Common Mergansers swimming left to right with male in front. Hooded Mergansers swimming right to left with male in front.

A Ducky Day

 

Pied-billed Grebe

 

Green-winged teal

 

Hooded Mergansers

 

Common Mergansers

We've been lucky to have a few more fancy ducks this year. The teal only stayed for a few minutes, but the grebe, and hooded mergansers have been here a while. The common mergansers are less common here, but we've seen them a few days.

Duck, Duck, Goose

We never tire of hooded mergansers.

Hooded Mergansers blowing in the wind

Today's windy weather brought some more hooded mergansers.

New Jersey Ducks

Northern Pintail


Northern Shoveler


Hooded Mergansers


We finally got out birding this weekend. The top two are some ducks from the Meadowlands. The hooded mergansers are from Lake Nelson. We've had two males and a female for the past day, possibly the same group that was here in the beginning of the year.

Another Day of Hooded Mergansers

 
They remind us of Mini Coopers amongst a bunch of 18 wheelers.

 

 

Our favorite ducks, the hooded mergansers, have been staying for two days now. They have been interacting a bit with the mallards and Canada geese.

Starting the New Year with Hooded Mergansers on Lake Nelson

We are really appreciative of the unseasonably warm temperatures we are having. It gave us a nice opportunity to sit outside and wait for the Hooded Mergansers to come close. They still have not climbed up on our island, but Mike is still hopeful. One cormorant seems to claim it everyday, though, so the Mergansers may never have a chance. Today we have two males and one female, so we hope they stay around and wait for another female to join the group.

Hooded Merganser couple from Mill Creek Marsh

Just behind Bob's discount furniture at the Mill Creek Mall in Seacaucus is another world, with migrating ducks instead of holiday sales.



This was our first time to Mill Creek Marsh, but we will be back. It gets migrating ducks similar to the DeKorte, but has smaller lakes and ponds, making it easier to enjoy the ducks. Hooded mergansers are still our favorite.

Fall Ducks

 

Hooded Merganser

 

Buffleheads

We love the fall when the migrating ducks stop by Lake Nelson.

Lake Nelson returns, just for a day

 

 

The dam at Lake Nelson has been under repair since the late fall. Instead of the lake, there is a small stream running down the center. We've had a few great blue herons fishing in the stream. On Thursday, there were three at once. With all the rain we got on Saturday, Lake Nelson filled up completly. While having coffee early this morning, Mike saw a small duck, and it turned out to be a female hooded merganser. Now, it's not our best merganser photo, but we are happy to have the lake back, if just for a day, and even happier to have the hooded merganser stop by.

Hooded Merganser at Brigantine

The Hooded Merganser duck is one of our very favorites to see, and with our lake being drained for repairs this fall, we were feeling very deprived. Fortunately our trip to Brigantine included seeing this one male, but we sure would have liked to have seen many more!

Back in Jersey: Lake Nelson Birds

Belted Kingfisher


Hooded Mergansers


Cormorant

Ruddy Duck

 

Red Throated Loon

We're back home in New Jersey. Lake Nelson had a few visitors today who are very infrequent: A lone ruddy duck and a lone red-throated loon. Four hooded mergansers arrived. The wind may have blown them off course. Of course, the resident cormorants are still active and the kingfisher also is out.

Brigantine: Ducks

Northern Pintails

American Black Duck

Hooded Merganser

Ruddy Ducks

Many migrating ducks are returning to Brigantine. There were at least 100 pintails around, but just one hooded merganser.

We have Wood Ducks! We have Wood Ducks!

 

Wood Ducks

Hooded Merganser

This morning we were discussing whether we should head out anywhere for some birding since it wasn't raining yet. Before we had decided on a location, Chris noticed that our resident lake population of ducks had increased. Upon picking up the binoculars, she exclaimed to Mike, "We have wood ducks, we have wood ducks, we have wood ducks." So, we stayed home and crept outside and hid behind our camouflage and watched them. We counted two males and three females. A female mallard was trying to hang out with them also; probably thinking these males are more handsome than the males in her bunch. We saw a small duck fly overhead and assumed it was a third male wood duck to even out the group. We sat out for about 30 to 40 minutes, and the small duck landed in the water near us. To our surprise, it was a male hooded merganser. It's a great day on Lake Nelson when two of our favorite fancy ducks arrive on the same day. We have a saying that the worst weather brings the best ducks and it turned out to be true again.

Today's Mergansers

Today we're lucky enough to have larger than usual groupings of both the hooded and common mergansers.

 

 

 

 

The top photo shows one of the pairs of hooded mergansers that have been floating around Lake Nelson today. The bottom three photos are female common mergansers: fighting over whose fish it is, showing off, and having a bad hair day.

Hooded Mergansers on Lake Nelson

 

 

The Hooded Mergansers are back.

Hooded Mergansers: The Great Gazoo of Ducks

 

Lake Nelson is still too frozen for our hooded mergansers, so we decided to go to Swimming River Reservoir in Monmouth County in search of them. We ran into a group of several males trying to impress a female. We don't know about her, but Chris was impressed by their displays and frog-like sounds . We really didn't get close enough for a great photo. After all of the hiking to see them, it wasn't until we were driving home that we saw three in a small pond by the side of the road. Chris got these great photos of the hooded mergansers from inside the car. Don't you think his head looks like the Great Gazoo's? Don't you love her hair?

 

 

 

 

 

As usual, Mike couldn't resist getting out of the car, scaring them away, so we went home and posted these.