For the second time within 3 years after an absence of 62 years ,a LONG TAILED DUCK has appeared on Prospect Lake. Today's bird is an adult hen.
From email and tweet from Jen Kepler and Sean Sime, curiosity got the best of me. I scanned the mostly frozen lake,around 420 pm,focusing on the open sections. In the distance,three drake RING NECKED DUCKS ,Bufflehead,and four HOODED MERGANSERS could be seen in the large swath along the Peninsula shore. Ruddy and Shoveler ducks pumped their numbers. But I don't see the Long Tailed.
Stationing myself by rescue ladder number fifteen,I again checked and finally, with blame on the glare from the illuminated lake surface,I found that rare duck. Within a tiny water spot no more than six feet wide, the hen Long tailed swirled around much of the time 200 feet from the western shoreline.
It's not unusual to find this species on interior freshwater bodies. Long taileds fly over our airspace towards the northern Canadian Coast to the west. It's more a matter of a bird dropping in on Prospect Lake. ( In fact, on my weekend BBC TRIP two weeks ago, we saw a drake on freshwater Manasquan Reservoir). As Prospect is near the coast like Manasquan, chances are good for special saltwater species.I bet the Great Lakes are prime hotspots for the species.
I can now boast I have the drake and hen Long tails -- two years apart.
