Along the interstate, I find a lifer

Bright sunshine held sway all day today, and my friend Laura and I took advantage of it and headed out this morning for a couple hours of birding. Our first stop was at a scenic overlook along the Delaware River off Interstate 295 near Trenton.

We’d stopped there once previously, only to find a big, distant glob of gulls a long way off in the middle of the river. That day, we didn’t bother to file an eBird report, but we did today.

Under a swirl of ring-billed gulls, we looked out into the river and not far off shore were several scaups. The question was, were they greater or lesser scaups? Either way, I was going to add a new bird to my life list. Our initial assessment was that they were greater scaups, which are infrequent visitors to our part of the world. The light was good, and the birds were close enough that I managed some decent photos of them, including the one topping this post.

When I got the images up at home, I consulted several websites to determine the difference between greater and lesser scaups. I changed the ID to lesser, as the bird heads seemed a bit more high and narrow than the more rounded greater scaup heads in the photos I saw online. I asked the Central Jersey birding Facebook group for help, and the one answer I have received so far agreed that lesser was the proper call.

One other bit of evidence, as you can see in the photo at top, the “nail” — that black spot on top of the beak — is a narrow rectangle, typical of the lesser scaup. On the greater scaup, the nail is wider and flange-like. So to me it all adds up to a lesser scaup ID, q.e.d.

The overlook visit was a quick one, and we moved on to John A. Roebling Park at Abbott Marshlands in Trenton. We were determined to find Northern shovelers, a relatively good bet at the marsh this time of year.

Alas, no shovelers were to be found, nor did we find any wood ducks as we’d hoped. But we did find ring-necked ducks, gadwalls, green-winged teals and American wigeons.

It took a while, but after several attempts to catch quick-flitting winter wrens on camera, we found a cooperative one near the edge of the parking lot. I was able to get a couple of shots of one for the first time.

With 30 species spotted at the marsh on top of the lifer sighting on the Delaware, we declared the day a roaring tweeting success.