Wintering Brant and Black Ducks

     In mid-November of this year, I got a live camera on Long Beach Island, New Jersey on our computer to see if I could spot Atlantic brant geese and black ducks in Atlantic Coast salt marshes.  I was thrilled to see a small flock each of brant and black ducks in the same view at the same time on the shallow water of a backwater off the ocean, where that water borders a salt marsh.  And there were other brant farther out on the backwater at that same time.  Other species of wildlife winter in coastal salt marshes in the eastern United States, but, to me, Atlantic brant and black ducks are icons, the spirits, of that habitat in winter.  They are exciting and inspiring to experience in winter salt marshes.
     I've seen both these species of waterfowl, in the feathers, wintering in Atlantic Coast salt marshes in the past, but I haven't been to a salt marsh in winter in years.  Furthermore, It's easier to see some kinds of wildlife by these live cameras than to try to see them in the wild.  Most wild creatures shy away from the human figure.    
     Brant and black ducks have much in common, though each is from a different genus of waterfowl.  They raise young in different habitats, but many individuals of each kind winter in the same salt marshes along the Atlantic Coast from New Jersey to North Carolina.  
     The elegant brants and handsome blacks have dark feathering that makes them stand out beautifully in the beige salt grass of winter.  Both types of birds often live, feed and fly in highly visible flocks.  Brant and black ducks are also easily noticed in open water on the edges of salt marsh back waters and channels.  They both appear black in the distance and against snow.  These species are about the same size because brant are a small type of goose and black ducks are robust ducks.  But brant have a typical goose shape with a long neck while blacks are built like typical ducks with shorter necks.  They are easy to identify from each other by shape alone.   
     Brant and blacks both ingest vegetation through winter.  Both of them "tip-up" in shallow water to dredge alga and other aquatic vegetation from the mud.  But brant also pluck grass and the green shoots of winter grains in fields while blacks also shovel up corn kernels in harvested fields.
     Being different species, brant and blacks have differences, too.  Brant run over water or ground to take flight, while black ducks simply leap into the air and fly away.  Brant fly in loose flocks and long lines, "shoulder to shoulder".  Brant honk hoarsely while female blacks quack loudly.  Brant raise goslings on the Arctic tundra, while black ducks rear offspring in eastern Canada and the United States.  Some female blacks hatch ducklings in Atlantic salt marshes in the United States.           
     Flocks of Atlantic brant and black ducks are striking species in Atlantic Coast salt marshes in winter.  I enjoy experiencing these handsome spirits of those winter habitats.