Your Hot Duck Guide to Winter Birding

[music]

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Here we are in midwinter, still months away from the arrival of the songbirds on the annual migration back north. That doesn't mean birders are staying indoors by their fireplaces or radiators because birding is a four-season activity. Despite the ice and wind chill, there are still birds out there to enliven the shorter days, namely, ducks.

[quack]

Brian: Here to talk about the joy of duck watching and tell us which kind of duck that was is WNYC news editor and bird enthusiasts, Kate Hinds, who prepared a feature on this particularly for the winter. She's joined by José Ramírez-Garofalo, a birder and a PhD student at Rutgers in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources. Hi, Kate and José. Welcome to WNYC.

Kate Hinds: Hi, Brian.

José Ramírez-Garofalo: Hi, Brian.

Brian: Kate a lot of birds obviously go south for the winter, why do ducks hang around there?

Kate: They went south for the winter. A lot of ducks are breeding and hanging out in Canada, the way northern reaches of the United States, and they come south here to winter. This is like their version of Florida, so they're just hanging out chilling. There's a lot of open water to be found. It does ice up, of course, the waterways here. In general, for the most part, there's open water and there's plenty of food for them, so they hang out.

Brian: José, do you want to add anything to that?

José: Sure. We have a good number of these boreal breeding ducks. They're breeding up in the Arctic and they're coming down here to molt their feathers and to spend the winter on our rocky shorelines.

Brian: I'm going to replay that duck call that we had in the intro and ask you to identify it. Here we go.

[quack]

Brian: All right now Kate is it, duck a duck, a duck? A duck is a duck is a duck, or is that a certain kind of duck?

Kate: I was just going to say, I think I should let José fill this one. [laughs]

José: I heard it the first time and I was pretty lost. I actually don't know what that is.

Kate: Can I guess? Gadwall.

Brian: I’m not positive, but somebody told me that it's a bufflehead.

Kate: [sighs]

José: I believe it.

Kate: That's a tiny duck with a big voice.

Brian: Are they small? I don't know what a bufflehead is.

[laughter]

Kate: They're really small, they're adorable ducks. They're black and white and kind of iridescent, they're smaller than a mallard. For comparison, mallards are good, solid birds, and buffleheads are small, small, small and they dive. You'll see them bobbing around the Central Park Reservoir and all of a sudden they'll just like gush, dip underwater for 30 seconds or so to get some food, and then they pop back up. They're beautiful. They're kind of iridescent when the sun hits them. They're very specific ducks. They're hard to confuse with other ducks. Once you see them and you identify them, you're like, "Oh, yes. I got a bufflehead."

Brian: What a wonderful description. The art of describing different birds on the radio by Kate Hinds. Listen-

José: Nice.

Brian: -do you have a question or story for Kate or José about your favorite ducks, or maybe even other birds who are here at this time of year? We will also invite and I do this at my own risk, you to call in with your own duck call if you have one at 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Kate, were you around for the segment that we did last year during the height of migration season and therefore birdwatching, where we invite people to call in with any favorite bird call that they had and we got so much cool stuff.

Kate: It was so good.

Brian: I don't think we got any duck. If anybody does a duck call, you are welcome. 212-433-WNYC. You could tell us if you do X with a duck in Central Park or how you use your call

skills. 212-433-9692. José, it's very cold out there. How cold is it? Is it so cold that José Ramírez-Garofalo is not out watching ducks today?

José: No. This is actually the perfect time to see our ducks, especially because when it's cold there, you see a lot of the sea ducks especially in the lower New York Bay closer to the land.

Brian: Does it get too cold for the ducks at a certain point and they feel, "Oh, I've come back north too soon?"

José: Well, if it's getting too cold for them, they will stay south of our area. In general, a lot of these ducks are really adapted for the cold weather.

Brian: By the way, I know we say birding now and not bird watching. We can't say ducking since that's already taken.

Kate: We can though.

Brian: Mostly by politicians who come on the show.

Kate: Bada pam.

Brian: Can we call it duck watching or do you actually say ducking?

Kate: I don't say ducking, I do when I'm being sarcastic. Birdwatching, birding, just going out to enjoy nature in New York City. These are all excellent terms.

Brian: We played the bufflehead and we're getting a couple of bufflehead calls like from Edith in Manhattan. You're on WNYC. Hi, Edith.

Edith: Hi, how are you?

Brian: Good.

Edith: This is really great segment. [chuckles] I have a question. I live near Central Park and I go to Turtle Pond, Austin. I don't know if you know where that is, but it's right near Belvedere Castle and Delacorte Theater. I went there after the first snow a couple of weeks ago and I saw some ducks there that I hadn't been familiar with. They had a little tuft on the back of their head, so maybe they're the one that you were just talking about, the bufflehead or maybe they were mergansers.

They were doing something I've never seen before. It was partly iced up the pump, but they were maybe about 10 of them, they were just swimming in a circle. They all got in line in a circle and they were swimming around, and around, and around for a really long time. Nobody I know has been able to tell me that they know what that is or if they've seen it before. Have you?

Kate: Oh, yes. I'm pretty sure José is going to agree with me. I think you have seen a northern shoveler or a group of northern shovelers.

José: Definitely.

Kate: They're pretty common in Central Park, they're very beautiful birds, the males are green and white and have a ruddy patch on the side. Their bills are shaped like shuffles hence the name, but they have this really amazing collaborative feeding behavior where they get in these huge groups and spin in circles. I don't know why they do that. I think it probably churned some stuff up. José, probably knows way more about this.

José: Yes.

Kate: It's a wonderful thing to see, it's very meditative. I find it really chills me out.

Brian: What do you want to add José?

José: That's exactly what they're doing. It's called circle feeding. They're just kicking up a bunch of stuff so that they can feed on it in that small group.

Brian: Another bufflehead question. I think even though that the answer didn't turn out to be bufflehead. Tom in Point Pleasant down the shore, you're on WNYC. Hi, Tom.

Tom: Yes, Brian. Good morning and thank you. This bufflehead is such a beautiful bird that where only in the last few years, noticing at the Jersey Shore. I'm wondering is it something having to do with climate change where in prior years we didn't see this bird?

Brian: José, any idea? Climate change.

José: That's a tough question to answer. It's definitely a complicated situation because we're seeing a lot of these waterfowl shift their range due to climate change, but it's hard to tell at the species level exactly what's going on. I'm sure that's a question that will be answered pretty soon in the next few years. It's a question that a lot of people that I know including myself are working on, but it's definitely more complicated than just climate change.

Brian: Brandon in Brooklyn has a favorite kind of duck. Brandon, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Brandon: Hi. Thanks for having me. I love that you're doing this. I love buffleheads, I love northern shovelers, but I wanted to shine a quick spotlight on the long-tailed duck, which you can currently see floating off of Fort Tilden. I saw a couple of weeks ago. They're these gorgeous ducks that kind of look like they were gently painted and have obviously a nice long tail.

Brian: You know that one, José?

José: I do, yes. In fact, also Fort Tilden in Breezy Point, we actually have globally significant numbers of long-tail ducks that spend the winter there.

Brian: Cody in Palm Springs. I don't think is calling with the duck call, but maybe as close as we're going to a get in this segment because I don't think anybody's calling with a duck call. Hi, Cody. You're on WNYC.

Cody: Hi, Brian. I love you so much. I can do a turkey call. [laughter]

Brian: I guess we'll take what we can get today.

José: Let's hear it.

Cody: It's very abrasive, get ready. Here we go. [gobbling] That's it.

Kate: That was pretty good.

Cody: I know. I know.

José: That was great.

Brian: You have to be careful in late November, right?

Cody: Oh, yes. Of course.

Kate: Do you do that when you walk through Staten Island and you'll get a whole group of them following you?

José: Oh my God, yes.

Brian: One of the winners of the best photo on your phone contest that we do on the show at the end of each year was somebody who came upon a whole little group of turkeys in front of a house on Staten Island.

Jose: Great. My neighborhood.

Brian: Took great shot of it. In what context, Cody, did you develop this skill?

Cody: I grew up in Texas and I had a friend who kept turkeys. They used to chase me.

[laughter]

Cody: I would just mimic. I was a kid, they would chase me, so I started mimicking what they would do. They were like [gobbling]. It just came naturally. I do it sucking in rather than out. I'm breathing in as I make this noise. I don't know how the vocal cords work, but that's how I get it to-- My body just had to mimic the sound and I got it.

Brian: Wow. Thanks for sharing. Louise in Bayonne, you're on WNYC. Hi, Louise.

Louise: Hi, hello. I'm a Bayonne resident and I live in a wonderful place. It's a park. It was built, I guess, by FEMA order to protect against climate change. They have this area that is like a big breeding ground for fish because when the tide comes up, the fish also spawn there. Now in the winter, we have thousands of ducks that come to spend the night there. They come in late in the afternoon and by 6:00 in the morning, they all fly out. It's just wonderful sights for watching the Northern Bay with the Richard Rutkowski Park in Bayonne.

Kate: That's a great tip. I would love to see that. Do you know what kind of ducks they are?

Louise: Actually, I just tweeted a photo to WNYC, which you can see thousands of these ducks arising. It's a beautiful park. It's a wonderful park because I thought it was only Canadian ducks, but you have other kinds of ducks. The smaller ducks, seagulls, everything comes there to spend the night. Sometimes they have fights because the ducks fights with the gulls. It's a mess, but it's a lot of noisy too.

[laughter]

Brian: Thank you very much for your call. Allan in New Rochelle has a question that I was also wondering about, even though it's not exactly about ducks. Alan, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Alan: Hi. I live in New Rochelle. I've lived there about 30 years. The last two or three years, there have been a number of geese. I'm bird-ignorant, but I'm assuming they're geese, that walk around the neighborhood from the late fall right through the spring. I'm just wondering if anyone can comment on why suddenly these geese don't fly south or whatever they're supposed to do, but walk around my neighborhood.

Brian: Yes, I have a park near me where I go a lot where the same thing happens. José, why?

José: You said from the late fall through the spring and then they disappear?

Brian: Do we still have Alan? They disappear?

Alan: I never see them in the summer.

José: That sounds like they're migrating. They're probably just migrating into our area. Then, in the summer, they're either Canada geese that are local and go into a marsh and start to breed? Or, they're Arctic breeding geese and they fly north and they breed up in Quebec or in Nunavut. That's basically what it sounds like to me.

Brian: Oh wait, we have a duck call caller. Janelle in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Janelle.

Janelle: Hi, Brian. Love your show.

Brian: Go ahead, do it.

Janelle: I just love it. It goes like this. [makes noises]

[laughter]

Brian: Thank you, Janelle. Because we can't top that, we will leave it there. Listeners, hear Kate Hinds's duck feature at wnyc.org, or read it on Gothamist with pictures at

gothamist.com. Kate, WNYC news editor when not birding. José Ramírez-Garofalo, birder and PhD student at Rutgers. Thank you very much. Thank you both very much.

Kate: Thank you, Brian.

José: Thanks, Brian.

 

Copyright © 2022 New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org for further information.

New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.