Breaking News: Long-tailed Ducks at Chestnut Hill Reservoir!

Long-tailed Ducks with Ruddy Ducks

Yesterday Ryan Schain posted on Massbird that he found two Long-tailed Ducks at Chestnut Hill Reservoir. These diving sea ducks tend to stick to the ocean or the Great Lakes. In the arctic they breed in ponds, streams, and marshes, but they mostly winter off shore on the open ocean. So on my way home from work yesterday I stopped by the reservoir and I was able to pick them out from the Ruddy Ducks from across the reservoir with their stockier body and color pattern with white along the waterline and dark back and head. I thought I could even make out the long tail at the distance (on the male, center of the picture). After a lot of walking in the rain was finally able to get much better views (and bad pictures) where I could discern the lighter face patch on the dark head and the long thin tail held up at an angle was quite visible. These ducks are quite unique with three distinct plumages giving them an ever changing appearance through out the year as they frequently molt. The Long-tailed Ducks are also the deepest diving ducks reaching depths of 200 ft. But while I was watching they weren't diving and they seemed mostly preoccupied with getting in a good nap. So if you get the chance get out there and check them out!

As a side note the original post from Ryan also mentioned Baltimore Orioles and Eastern Kingbirds, so keep your eyes out. Also of note, I also found a Palm warbler and a few Yellow-rumps and a Flicker who didn't seem to mind the pouring rain at all.

4/26 Update. I just saw that Ryan has great pictures of the pair on his Flickr stream you can check out here.