Winter Conditions Return for Lloyd Center January 2025 Waterfowl Count
waterfowl – Apponagansett Bay
For the 2023/24 winter waterfowl survey a year ago, both counts featured warm temperatures and rain events, during a stretch of mild winters with minimal snow and ice, along with some moon or rainfall-enhanced high tides. For study of a bird community escaping extreme cold and frozen wetlands, the count has more resembled an index of sea level rise and global warming. That trend finally reversed for the January 26th count which completes our 38th Annual Winter Waterfowl Survey of coastal systems from Tiverton, RI, to Dartmouth, MA, conducted by Lloyd Center staff and volunteers.
For this count there was a shallow coating of remnant snow cover, extensive ice on most systems from recent bitter cold, and a frigid start to the morning. The December count had the first trace of ice in December since 2020, which combined with drought conditions, had reduced inland freshwater. The high levels of ice for this January count were last seen in 2022, so a true “winter” season finally returned. So how did this affect this January count, and the overall 2024/25 waterfowl results?
The 5,668 total birds is a decline by 1,036, with the season total of 10,731, also a decline by 812 birds from a year ago. As in December, Canada Geese declined by 1,520 birds to the lowest January (1,912) and season (2,644) totals since 2017/18 (eight years). This decline of geese also explains the waterfowl decline for the overall 2024/25 survey. Geese sometimes rest on ice, but instead were likely attracted to the forage in nearby fields which had only patchy snow cover for this count. The geese that did appear converged in the expansive Westport River (819) and Apponagansett Bay (665) flowing estuaries which had the highest waterfowl totals. The Slocum River had the next highest abundance due to high counts for American Black Duck (235), Mallards (210), Gadwall (160) and Bufflehead (101).
As in December, an overall increase in ducks (484) occurred, almost exclusively due to a considerable Mallard (404) increase. Mallards have a local population tied to freshwater wetlands but aren’t usually upland feeders, so Mallards need wetland food sources when local freshwater freezes. Ponds in parks and shallow wetlands are often available in December but freeze up in mid-winter, when Mallards may disperse a short distance to sections of open estuary water and establish tight congregations close to freshwater inflows like the heads of Apponagansett Bay (250) and the Slocum River (210) where they were dominant. Mallards and Back Ducks often feed separately but do intersperse and even hybridize, with one Black duck-Mallard hybrid seen at Apponagansett Bay.
Relatively common to dominant species increasing in January at sites they’ve historically favored, included American Black Ducks in the Slocum (235) and Little River (213) complex; Hooded Mergansers in the Westport River (51); scaup in Apponagansett Bay (260), and Common Goldeneye in the Slocum River (82). Along with Canada Geese, three other common species declined, but were most abundant in the Westport River, including Bufflehead (313), Red-breasted Merganser (82), and Mute Swan (76), which depicts both the importance of this largest system to the region, and of flowing estuaries to migrant waterfowl that become displaced when ponded areas freeze.
As always, we thank the volunteers for their assistance on this ongoing citizen science project that continues serving as an index of ecosystem health and biodiversity in our busy coastal region.