Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks at Celery Bog Nature Area

                by Ed Hopkins, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA

     An adult Black-bellied Whistling-Duck (BBWD) were observed at the Celery Bog Nature Area on
3 August 2007 by John Skene near the Lindberg Road pond.  The nature area is located in Tippecanoe
County, Indiana, USA, on the northwest side of the city of West Lafayette. The area is a West Lafayette
City park situated between Lindberg Road and Cumberland Avenue west of Northwestern Avenue.

     The bird was first seen on a snag north of Lindberg Road about 9 AM.  Several people searched the
area that day to no avail.  Doug Gerbracht of Brook found a BBWD about noon the next day.  He found it
on the far northeast corner of of the park next to Cumberland Avenue.  See the map in Figure1.  The position
of the last observation was 40.458° N 86.936° W.

Fig. 1 - Map of the Celery Bog Nature Area with last position of the Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks marked

    A few hours later, Barny Dunning and Angela Hoffman found a second bird.  One of those birds can be
seen in the photo in Figure 2.  Both of the BBWDs seen on 4 August 2007 were adults.

    Fig. 2 - One of two adult Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks digiscoped at the Celery Bog Nature Area
    on 4 August 2007.