Barnegat Lighthouse NJ

 

                   

                     Male Harlequin Duck showing off his beautiful plumage on the rocky jetty


 On what felt like a never ending jetty, about 40 yards out, my mom and I were desperate to see one of the beautiful ducks. Finally, on the edge of the jetty I saw the heads of two male Harlequin Ducks popping out, one adult and one immature. I crept up slowly to try and get a better look at them. I kept walking towards them until I was practically on top of them. My mom soon followed when she realized that they were not going to be scared off easily. We both got very close and watched them for a while until they meandered off into the surf.

 

Male Long-tailed Duck, winter plumage, coming close to the jetty diving, looking for food.

This is one of the more common winter ducks at Barnegat Lighthouse.  They are very beautiful and their long tail really makes them look elegant.  On our visit to Barnegat, they were much easier to see than the Harlequin Ducks.  They stayed near the beginning of the jetty, but they did follow the jetty rocks the whole way down.

 Although we still saw many amazing birds, the weather just happened to be horrible.  There were 40 mile per hour winds and it was blizzarding like crazy.  We did not end up walking out all the way, but we still saw cool birds.  Other birds we saw on the trip were Black-bellied Plover, Common Loon, Red-throated Loon, Purple Sandpiper, Ruddy Turnstone, Brant, both Scaup species, Bufflehead and Red-breasted Merganser.