It always seems I’m short on seeing water birds, so this morning I headed to John A. Roebling Park, commonly referred to as Trenton marsh.
The marsh had plenty of activity when I arrived about 7:45 a.m. Canada geese and mallards were plying the water — no surprise — and adjoining Spring Lake was suddenly clear of its summer vegetation. Ring-necked ducks were out there, out of range from my camera, so I concentrated on the marsh.
The Northern pintail I saw take off was a harbinger of more seasonal visitors to come. The main trail has a few cutout paths that bring you to the edge of the marsh, and I quickly spotted a few Northern shovelers, including the one atop this post floating past two mallards. With their oversized bills, shovelers make me think evolution has a sense of humor.
More pintails appeared as I walked toward the footbridge to take me to onto the island and the back part of the marsh, White-throated sparrows were around me in abundance, and my best photo of the day was of one of them. (You’ll see that one in a later post.)
As I reached the back marsh, I was hoping to catch a few teals. That wasn’t to be, but I got another treat instead: four hooded mergansers that skedaddled a hot moment after I started shooting. I got one sharp image of one of the males and a couple of fuzzy shots of females.
I don’t often anthropromorphize birds, but the males remind me of bespoke Pierce Brosnan and the females of the wild-haired Phyllis Diller. In a good way, of course. 🦅
The Jersey Birder 