Wood Duck/Ducklings

Here's a Wood Duck and the ducklings she's caring for back in July. The adult is the larger duck on the right. Certainly the ducklings are much closer to their adult size than they were a couple months ago, as this post of another duck family shows.

These guys may hang around here for the winter. NJ is an area where Wood Ducks can be seen all year round. Still, if the reservoir freezes, they probably won't be able to feed, and I'd expect them to move to open water (e.g. the Raritan River).

Both male and female ducklings look similar, I'm not good enough to differentiate them at this age. Eventually the males will be one of our most colorful waterfowl though.

This part of the reservoir is awfully green. (You might have thought the ducks were on a golf course, but they're in water.) Assuming this is mostly duckweed/watermeal (as opposed to algae) this is both good and bad:

  • They're native plants that are high in protein, and a valuable food source for animals like Wood Ducks.
  • They probably signal that there's way too much phosphorus and nitrogen in the reservoir, and this much of the plants can adversely affect the habitat by lowering oxygen levels and blocking sunlight. 

July 13, 2021 at Washington Valley Park
Photo 148186755, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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