2023 Plymouth County Duck Count

On Sunday, November 19, 2023, the South Shore Bird Club held its 14th annual Plymouth County Duck Count. 35 birders spent the day counting waterfowl on freshwater ponds all over the county. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Since we’ve had a mild Fall, all of the ponds were completely open this year.

Although many people reported a slow day, our numbers were mostly within their normal range. Our overall total (4,709 ducks or 6,751 including all waterbirds) is a little above our 14-year average. Our counts of Ring-necked Ducks, Hooded Mergansers, and Greater Scaup were all close to our all-time highs. We did not have any notably low counts this year.

We also had a few uncommon species make the list. Two Redheads were found on Ezekiel Pond in Plymouth. We’ve only had this species on the count once before and it was a single bird in 2010. The same group also had a Barrow’s Goldeneye on Silver Lake.

A Red-throated Loon was found on Blackmore Pond in Wareham. We've recorded this species only twice before on the count. We also had 8 Long-tailed Ducks (another new high count) in Lakeville and a Black Scoter in Pembroke. Although these 3 species can easily be found on the coast nearby, they are unusual for this event since we only cover freshwater ponds.

The species counts for this year are listed below. More details can be found in our trip report in eBird:

SSBC Duck Count 2023 - eBird Trip Report

And our totals for previous years are available at:

SSBC Duck Count Results

Canada Goose -          1,573

Mute Swan -                   320

Wood Duck -                    13

Gadwall   -                      187

American Wigeon -          89

American Black Duck  - 271

Mallard                     -   920

Northern Shoveler    -  1

Northern Pintail       -     7

Green-winged Teal   - 141

Redhead                    - 2 

Ring-necked Duck  - 1,155

Great Scaup            - 207

Lesser Scaup             - 80

Scaup sp.                  - 9

Long-tailed Duck       - 8    

Bufflehead               - 582

Common Goldeneye - 138

Barrow’s Goldeneye  - 1

Hooded Merganser - 650

Common Merganser - 64

Ruddy Duck -             183

Black Scoter              - 1

Common Loon - 13

Red-throated Loon - 1

Pied-billed Grebe - 36

Horned Grebe     - 4

American Coot   - 95

Great Cormorant  - 1

Double-crested Cormorant - 16