Barnegat sea ducks

Early departure from a friend’s place in Philly, coffee from a Wawa, and on the jetty at Barnegat Light by 8:10 AM. The jetty is a two-hundred-yard scramble across wet, uneven boulders and you should take it seriously even in dry weather. I do it slow.

The target every January is Harlequin Ducks. There were sixteen in the protected channel on the east side — I counted because I always count Harlequins. The males look hand-painted and in sun they practically glow. Females look like any other duck, which is probably the whole point.

Beyond the Harlequins, it was a sea duck bonanza: Long-tailed Ducks calling all morning in their soft two-note gossip, Common Eider (a few males in full adult plumage, most first-year grayish), Surf Scoter rafts riding the swell, and two White-winged Scoter that cooperated briefly.

Gulls: Great Black-backed, Herring, a single Iceland that might’ve been two. The occasional Purple Sandpiper on the rocks that you see only if you’re looking. One Snow Bunting flew over calling and I didn’t get a photo.

I found a spot out of the wind, wedged between two boulders, and shot for about ninety minutes until my hands refused to work. The walk back was as slow as the walk out. Came home with ice crystals on the front element and a lot of keepers.