A-Long-tailedDuckPair

Photo Study Of The Long-tailed Duck At Barnegat Light State Park

I was able to get to Barnegat Lighthouse State Park on Long Beach Island in New Jersey three or four times during the past few months. One of the great attractions are the Long-tailed Ducks
(formerly known as Oldsquaws) that winter with us and feed actively alongside the jetty. It is not uncommon to see small flocks of twenty to thirty birds in all stages of molt sitting out in the inlet.

    The Long-tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis) is a small sea duck that breeds in tundra pools and marshes as well as sea coasts and large mountain lakes in Alaska, northern Canada,
    northern Europe and Russia. Also, it is distinctive among ducks in plumage, molt sequences, foraging behavior (they can actually dive to 250 feet), and vocalizations. For example, most other
    ducks have two molts per year, one in the early summer to non-breeding plumage, followed by a molt back to bright breeding plumage in the fall. However, Long-tailed Ducks begin their molt
    earlier in the spring and have a more complex schedule of interrupted and partial molts, such that an individual bird molts almost continuously from April through October, undergoing a series
    of four different plumages.
                                         (from Sibley, Cornell BNA and Wikpedia)

This past Wedneday, there were some fifty Long-tailed Ducks feeding along the jetty and between 800 - 1000 Long-tails in a huge raft off the end of the jetty. The sight of all these ducks obviously staging
for their migration northward was truly awesome. In any event, here are some photographs of these beautiful birds:

Long-tailed Drake Scoots Across The Water

Long-tailed Drake In Winter Plumage

Long-tailed Hen In Winter Plumage

Long-tailed Drake In Spring Plumage

Long-tailed Hen In Spring Plumage

To see a larger image of the birds below, please click on either the thumbnails or the captions...thanks!


A-Long-tailedDuckPair	A-Long-tailedHenSpring	A-Long-tailedHenSpringMolt2	A-Long-tailedHensWinter	A-Long-tailedHenWinter2

A-Long-tailedHenWinter3	A-Long-tailedHenWinter4	A-Long-tailedHenWinter5	A-Long-tailedHenWinter6	A-Long-tailedHenWinterFlies

B-Long-tailedDrakeScoots	B-Long-tailedDrakeSpringMolt1	B-Long-tailedDrakeSpringMolt2	B-Long-tailedDrakeSpringMolt3	B-Long-tailedDrakeWinter1

B-Long-tailedDrakeWinter10	B-Long-tailedDrakeWinter12	B-Long-tailedDrakeWinter13	B-Long-tailedDrakeWinter14	B-Long-tailedDrakeWinter15

B-Long-tailedDrakeWinter2	B-Long-tailedDrakeWinter3	B-Long-tailedDrakeWinter4	B-Long-tailedDrakeWinter5	B-Long-tailedDrakeWinter6

B-Long-tailedDrakeWinter7	B-Long-tailedDrakeWinter8	B-Long-tailedDrakeWinter9	B-Long-tailedDuckGroup	B-Long-tailedPairsWinterFly

B-Long-tailedPairWinter	B-Long-tailedPairWinter3	B-Long-tailedTrioWinter2

� Howard B. Eskin 2010 Please email your comments to hbeskin@voicenet.com Please click here to go back to Bird Webpage Index