{"id":14199,"date":"2025-05-25T15:38:49","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T19:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=14199"},"modified":"2025-05-25T15:38:49","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T19:38:49","slug":"sussex-county-black-bellied-whistling-ducks-05-25-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=14199","title":{"rendered":"Sussex County Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, 05\/25\/25"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I was up and out early this morning. My first stop was Port Orange Road, where I enjoyed some productive birding. I took my time and birded the entire road; I had a total of 43 species, and I added three species to my Orange County year list (Acadian Flycatcher, Canada Warbler, and my target bird for the morning &#8211; MOURNING WARBLER). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Afterwards, I headed out to Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge&#8217;s Liberty Loop, to see if I could finally catch up with the 7 BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING DUCKS that have been reported there. Fortunately the birds continued, and not only that, they were in a good location, not too far from the trail, so I enjoyed really great looks and got some decent photos. The birds&#8217; preferred area at the refuge is about 300 yards or so south of the NY border, just into Sussex County NJ. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/052525-BBWD.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/052525-BBWD-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14201\" srcset=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/052525-BBWD-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/052525-BBWD-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/052525-BBWD-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/052525-BBWD-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/052525-BBWD-1200x1200.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/052525-BBWD.jpg 1337w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">~Black-bellied Whistling Ducks at the Liberty Loop, 05\/25\/25.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/052525-BBWD-3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/052525-BBWD-3-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14202\" srcset=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/052525-BBWD-3-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/052525-BBWD-3-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/052525-BBWD-3-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/052525-BBWD-3-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/052525-BBWD-3-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/052525-BBWD-3.jpg 1951w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">~These guys spent most of their time with their heads under water &#8211; I was happy to get some good timing and get all three with their heads up. BBWDs at the Liberty Loop, 05\/25\/25.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/052525-BBWD-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/052525-BBWD-2-1024x640.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14203\" srcset=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/052525-BBWD-2-1024x640.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/052525-BBWD-2-300x188.jpg 300w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/052525-BBWD-2-768x480.jpg 768w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/052525-BBWD-2-1536x960.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/052525-BBWD-2-1200x750.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/052525-BBWD-2.jpg 1974w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">~Black-bellied Whistling Ducks at Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge; Liberty Loop, 05\/25\/25.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was up and out early this morning. My first stop was Port Orange Road, where I enjoyed some productive birding. I took my time and birded the entire road; I had a total of 43 species, and I added three species to my Orange County year list (Acadian Flycatcher, Canada Warbler, and my target &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=14199\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Sussex County Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, 05\/25\/25&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28,15,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-jersey","category-rarities","category-sussexcounty"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5i3kT-3H1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14199"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14205,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14199\/revisions\/14205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}