Hopkinton State Park

I managed to find one interesting species both morning and noon in spite of only having a few spare minutes to devote to birding.

I have a serious question about Hopkinton State Park.  Why aren't there more waterfowl species present?   It's such a nice, medium-sized body of open water.  All that I typically find there are Canada geese.  Anything else seems to be an oddball.  Like today, a single individual Ruddy Duck female.  Why was she there?  Why wasn't there a whole flock (appropriate if ducks are in flight)?  Or raft (appropriate if ducks are in water)?  Or whatever it is that a group of ducks is known by?  I don't understand it.  Farm Pond, in Framingham, is a smaller body of water, seems more polluted, is certainly surrounded by a much noisier set of neighbors (i.e., railroad switching yard) BUT typically has far greater varieties and numbers of waterfowl than Hopkinton State Park ever has.  Why is that?

Accipiter species Hawk

Ruddy Duck (female)