Ontbirds subscribers,
Just wanting to let those who go looking for the Smew at Whitby Harbour in the
morning know that this bird is essentially in "female" plumage. Having reviewed
some of the references in my library, I now believe that the bird could be an
adult female. It helps to view the photos on my computer rather than on my
android phone as I originally did. It shows quite a dark loral area which I had
thought was likely the beginning of the emergence of a first-spring male
plumage, but from what I have read, adult females in winter are much duskier in
this area than birds in summer. Beaman and Madge (1998) cautions that ageing
and sexing of such 'red-head' birds is difficult in the field. None of the
photos are useful for assessing the colour of the irides as a clue to ageing
the bird. In one spread wing photo the bird appears to show white-edged, gray
tertials and a fairly large white patch on the leading edge of the upperwing
and a white terminal edge to the secondaries and the greater coverts.
In essence, go looking for a bird reasonably matching an adult female Smew from
your field guide. If it is still around once the sun is up, we can work on
correctly ageing and sexing the bird (or looking for evidence of captivity!).
Let's hope it will be around in a few hours time. Since I first posted several
hours ago, I have been contacted by one observer who saw this bird at 1:00 p.m.
near the harbour light of the breakwall.
Directions as previously given: Exit Hwy 401 at exit 410 (Brock St.) and follow
it south 2 km. (to where Brock
St. veers east and becomes Water St.) to the parking lot at the pier at Whitby
Harbour across from the Whitby Marina. The bird was seen just off this parking
lot.
Glenn Coady
Whitby
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