(Click on the photo for a larger image.)

Three Long-tailed Ducks were at the north end of Boonton Reservoir this morning. The above photo shows the ducks in the foreground and shows the viewer how much the water is drawn down at the reservoir. The bare shore in the background is usually submerged.

A Common Loon, 11 Green-winged Teal and a quartet of Gadwalls along with the usual Ring-billed Gulls, Mute Swans, etc. were at the reservoir.

An immature Great Cormorant was at Lake Parsippany on Oct. 3. What is possibly the same Great Cormorant was seen this morning at the south end of the lake, keeping company with a not-so-great Cormorant (i.e., Double-crested) as seen in the photo below.

Small numbers of Buffleheads, Common Mergansers and Ruddy Ducks are also at the lake.

From Ivan Kossak in Lincoln Park, Oct. 24:

“43 species in Lincoln Park. The indisputable highlight was an Eastern Meadowlark at the Borinski Farm on Route 202 [Editor’s note: Ivan has access to the farm which is private property]. If not for the Meadowlark, a Vesper Sparrow at Beavertown Park on Pine Brook Road would have taken top honors. Also notable were 5 Hermit Thrushes at Beavertown Park and another at Lanes Field on Ryerson Road and several Savannah Sparrows at Borinski Farm. 2 Pied-Billed Grebes were also present at the Lincoln Park Gravel Pits lake.”

9 American Pipits, Purple Finch, Pine Siskin, Rusty Blackbirds along with single White-crowned and Lincoln’s Sparrows and an Eastern Meadowlark were highlights at Glenhurst Meadows, Saturday, Oct. 24 (Jeff Ellerbusch).

Vesper Sparrows are reported this week from typical locations such as Glenhurst Neadows, Finderne Wetlands, Duke Farms, Great Swamp NWR, Troy Meadows, etc.

The following photo of a Vesper Sparrow in the Great Swamp NWR by Chuck Hantis is from Oct. 23.

View local eBird checklists in the mocosocoBirds region via eBird’s Region Explorer. Use the following links:

The eBird Hotspot Primer is here and can also be accessed via the Hotspot menu item on the mocosocoBirds.com website.

@mocosocoBirds at Twitter is another communications stream. Instant field reports and links of interest are tweeted throughout the day. The latest tweets appear on the sidebar of this page. One can follow mocosocoBirds at Twitter or link to @mocosocoBirds.

Finis