Photo: A Ring-Necked Duck swims between two Canada Geese at Georgetown Reservoir. Taken by Mr. Chirpy
In the Birding Lingo post we talked about the phrase “Big Day” or “Big Year”. This phrase means trying to see as many species as possible in a set time period. Mr. Chirpy and I decided to try and have a Big Day for ducks in January. We have a square on our 2024 Birding Bingo card to see 10 duck species in a day, so we thought it would be fun to make an attempt!
Our first stop was the Georgetown Reservoir, a place we hadn’t visited yet. Unfortunately, without a scope, our duck-viewing experience felt more like hide-and-seek. We still managed to spy four species – the Ring-Necked Duck, Ruddy Duck, Lesser Scaup, and Bufflehead. We were off to a…paddling…start.
Next we went to Roosevelt Island. I spotted some Wood Ducks there previously and was hoping to see them again. Result: we saw 12 species, but no ducks
We were cold and hungry so we stopped for brunch at Peacock Café in Georgetown. After we were appropriately caffeinated, we headed to Constitution Gardens to hopefully see the Northern Shovelers that winter there.
Well… it was frozen solid. Which meant no ducks. Nope, not even a Mallard. I got a little discouraged at that point, because hitting 10 without a scope and without ducks at Constitution Gardens would be tough, and it was cold, but we decided to press on. Luckily we were getting a bunch of eBird alerts about a raft of Lesser Scaups near East Potomac Park, so off we went.
First we stopped at the bridge over Ohio Drive to check out the Tidal Basin. Nothing. We then headed to East Potomac Park–Hains Point. We talked to some folks that had a scope and they pointed out the large raft of Lesser Scaups across the way. They were near Ft. McNair and we couldn’t see anything from our vantage point. Fortunately, we have base access! We were able to go on base and get a closer look at the ducks.
There we added 3 new species to our tally, bringing us to 7! We saw a Canvasback, Greater Scaup, and finally a pair of Mallards. We were really starting to lose steam at this point in the day, and still had 3 species to see, so we went back home for a rest. We almost called it a day but decided to go back out and see if we could spot the final 3.
We headed back to East Potomac Park and spotted a pair of Hooded Mergansers! We were at 8 species with an hour to go before sunset. Getting to 10 seemed to be in reach.
With the sun sinking low, we headed back to Constitution Gardens once more, hoping for a duck miracle. Alas, no luck. Desperation setting in, we made one final dash to Georgetown Reservoir. And there, amidst the fading light, we spotted a group of Common Mergansers – our ninth species! With darkness closing in, we faced a dilemma: where to find our elusive tenth species of duck?
We didn’t have time to try Kenilworth Gardens, so we decided to try Roosevelt Island one more time for those Wood Ducks.
So… did we do it?
Drumroll….
NOPE!
There were no new duck species to be found at Roosevelt Island. We ended our Big Day for ducks with 9 total, 1 species short of our goal, but we made some amazing memories and had an absolute blast. We need to do it again before the winter is over!
This spring, we are going to do a D.C. Big Day for all species—with NO BREAKS! Stay tuned