Birding Hotspots: The Harlequin Ducks of Barnegat Light, New Jersey

As I mentioned in a previous post, click here for that post , I spent the last few days along the East Coast working on waterfowl photography. We made our way from Maryland to Long Island but my favorite stop was at one of the best birding hotspots on the East Coast, Barnegat Light, New Jersey. There were tons of awesome species to photography but my hands down favorite were the Harlequin Ducks! I’d only seen this species a couple times before, in Alaska and on Lake Michigan in Indiana,  but my views had never been great. This all changed at Barnegat Light! The ducks are extremely tame and if you take it slow and approach with caution, you can get some great photos.

One of the keys to getting great photos of waterfowl is the get as close to the water level as you can. This allows you to be on the same level as the ducks and will greatly improve how your photos look!

In addition to sitting up on the rocks, the ducks would also pass quite close in flight. I’d never done very much flight photography but found it to be the most fun for me to work on.

Have you ever seen and photography Harlequin Ducks? If so, where were you?