Laurie and I took a trip to Forsythe NWR in New Jersey in August 2021. While we were there I was told about a small flock of Black Bellied Whistling Ducks. They had been there for weeks. Someone told me right where to look. Unfortunately, the day we were there they were not seen. Nobody had them on ebird reports. They were seen again the following day and for the next few days. I'm not complaining on that day I saw a lifer Roseate Spoonbill, Gull Billed Terns and Caspian Terns.
Black Bellied Whistling Ducks are a Florida specialty. Some are also in extreme southern Texas and Arizona. The one in New Jersey was a big deal for the birders there. They are common in Mexico and South America but in the US, they don't live north of central Florida.
The day after I came home I went to work as usual. That day Dave Campbell found a Black Bellied Whistling Duck (BBWD for now on) in Warwick, RI. All day at work it was not lost on me the odds that a species that I had never heard of being in Rhode Island showed up the day after I looked for them in New Jersey.
As soon as I got home from work I dragged Laurie to Apponaug Cove to see the BBWD. I've missed enough birds by mere seconds that we rushed down to see it as soon as I could leave work. When I got to the cove the BBWD followed a bunch of Mallards that came right up to us. It was pretty obvious the Mallards were fed by locals and hoping for a handout. The BBWD stayed back but still got to within fifteen feet of us. Unfortunately my camera was home! I had taken it out of the car to upload the photos from our Philly/ Forsythe trip. I didn't even think about it until I got out of the car and went to grab it.
As you might imagine, I was really annoyed that I left my camera at home. I could have gotten amazing photos without even trying because it was so close. Instead, I took a couple of "proof" photos with my underwhelming camera on my phone. It killed me to see everyone else with wallhangers of such a beautiful duck. We were the last people to see the duck (along with one other birder.) After it swam away from us, it kept swimming far down the cove never to be seen again.
Fast forward to this week...I was trying to figure out something to do this weekend. I checked the Mass Rare Bird Alerts and saw there was a BBWD in Holyoke. I also wanted to see if I could see spawning Landlocked Salmon from Quabbin and thought we could make a day trip of it. I was also hoping that there might be some foliage as we went toward the Berkshires (spoiler alert there were very few trees that were still pretty).
We left early and went to see if we could get the duck. It had been hanging out with domestic ducks and tame Mallards at a farm. The type of farm that has cider and hayrides in the fall. They also sold apple cider donuts, pumpkins, and ice cream. They had animals that people could feed and pet. Right out front was a duck pond full of many varieties of domestic ducks and Mallards. It seems this Black Bellied Whistling Duck found this place to its liking and has hung out for a while.
The BBWD wasn't hard to see at all. It was feeding in the mulch when I got there. It didn't have any fear of people. It walked back under the fence into the duck pond . I walked almost up to it to take photos and I knew from the beginning I was going to get redemption. I had as long as I wanted to take all of the photos I wanted of this bird.
And I did... I took photos of it for thirty minutes. It did tuck its head and took a nap that I had to wait for. Luckily, a gull didn't want to see it nap either and gave it a little nip. This woke up the duck and it actually made the whistling sound that they are named for.
I enjoyed my time at the farm. Then we went to Holyoke Dam where I hoped to see a rare turtle but it was a bit cold. From there I went to Quabbin and walked down a dirt road to where a biologist told me I should go to see salmon run up river. The river was almost dry and there wasn't any chance that salmon was in it. They would have had to jump a mud dam to get into the river. I suspect there are hundreds of salmon staging just outside the river mouth waiting for a big rain to raise the water level in the lake and the river.
Multiple photos of the Black Bellied Whistling Duck below. You can see the black belly
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