Duck, duck go out and see some waterfowl

It’s winter time in the Chesapeake and I’ve got ducks on the brain. Not just ducks but geese and swans, too; all of the waterfowl that travel south to the Bay during fall and winter in search of abundant food, warmer weather and longer days.

Admittedly, I don’t have a lot of first-hand experience with waterfowl. I’m not a hunter and I grew up in the suburbs, so whenever I saw a duck it was in a small pond quacking and swimming toward clumps of Wonder Bread. In fact, one of my first experiences with the Bay was feeding mallards at City Dock in Annapolis as a child, falling into that water and being driven home half-naked in the back of the family station wagon. I suppose you could call it a silly goose moment.

But as a communications specialist for the Chesapeake Bay Program, I’ve come to learn quite a lot about waterfowl and consider them to be one of my favorite aspects of the Chesapeake. It’s got something to do with them being such old souls. I am enlivened by the ancient migratory flight of ducks, swans and geese—their button-sized bodies sailing overhead, forming letters in the sky since before there were words. I find that the male wood duck, who sports an exquisite suit of dark green, lush brown, delicate beige and a hint of teal, is on this earth to remind us that you don’t need an excuse to dress well and that timeless fashion always wins out.

Tundra swans visit one of two restored wetlands on farmland owned by Mark Furr in Caroline County, Md., on March 16, 2018. Funding for the projects, which total nearly 100 acres, came from Maryland’s Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund with matching funds from Ducks Unlimited. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)

But waterfowl are also a quirky lot. The hooded merganser with its fluffy mohawk. The Ruddy duck with its disproportionately large blue bill, like a kid who has strapped a party hat to the front of their face. Even the more mildly drawn waterfowl like brants, teals and black ducks paddle through the water and skim along its surface in a playful way, as if to cut loose after a several-hundred-mile migration.

Because most waterfowl visit the Bay in the fall and leave in late winter, few of us get to see them in the wild. So if you’ve been inspired by my waterfowl rumination and want to get out and find some ducks, geese and swans yourself, either this year or the next, I have a few tips that might help you out.

First, you need to consider the time of year. While some waterfowl live in the Chesapeake Bay watershed year-round, many migrate here during the fall, stay through winter and leave early spring. Generally, you can expect to see waterfowl starting in mid-October and your last chance to see them will be in March. But it also depends on where you live and what you want to see. For example, snow geese and tundra swans spend most of fall and winter near the Chesapeake Bay, but then they will head to parts of Pennsylvania and stick around between February and March before continuing their journey home.

The next thing to consider is where to find them. Any place with ponds, lakes or large bodies of water nearby can be a destination for waterfowl, but to find the greatest diversity and abundance of species you want to go to large parks and wildlife sanctuaries with plenty of open water and wetlands. Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, Elk Neck State Park and Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge are popular waterfowl destinations in Maryland and Virginia, and Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Susquehannock State Park and Chenango Valley State Park are great spots in Pennsylvania and New York.

Middle Creek is one of the places that is renowned for the large swaths of snow geese and tundra swans making their pit stop in February and March before heading back to the Arctic. If you want to see a diversity of ducks like scaups, canvasback and buffleheads, then you will have to go by boat to the deeper parts of the Bay. Less social species like black ducks are often found near forests and in more isolated areas away from other waterfowl.

Hundreds of canvasback ducks flock together on deeper, open waters of the Chesapeake Bay at Jonas Green Park in Annapolis, Md., on Feb. 26, 2015. The waterfowl took turns diving under the surface of the water, right at the edge of the ice. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)

Lastly, once you’re at the right place at the right time, pay attention to the behavior of waterfowl, particularly how they hunt. Ducks in shallower water are usually dabbling ducks, which means they feed near the surface of the water, tilting their bodies 90 degrees until their tails are sticking straight up. The northern shoveler, a dabbling duck, sometimes swims in circles to stir up the water and bring food to the surface. Many other ducks are divers. They dive down into the water, either from flying or a swimming position, and sometimes don’t resurface for two or three minutes. The red breasted merganser is a diver that herds schools of fish and then feeds on them underwater, using their serrated bill to catch slippery fish. You’re likely to find diving ducks in deeper waters.

Pintails feed by “tipping up” their tail and submerging their head to reach food underwater. (Photo by Steve Droter/Chesapeake Bay Program)

That should be enough to get you started on proper waterfowl viewing. The point is just to get outside, brave the cold and observe these beautiful, spunky birds before it’s time for them to head back north. If you can do that then you’ll never look at winter the same way again.