By the way, I was not able to find the Common Teal yesterday morning. The teal numbers were way down from a few days ago (about 15 instead of close to 80), but a lot of water had opened up on the east end where there is a lot of vegetation, and a lot of the dabblers were in there, so I could easily have missed it. I will try to check later today and will report if I refind it. Not too many other new ducks, either. I have seen a Tundra Swan on and off at Dryden Lake, and I saw a single TREE SWALLOW there yesterday.
This morning we had 7 FOX SPARROWS under the feeders, digging little holes in the snow which the other sparrows, Song and American Tree, were taking over occasionally. Jay McGowan Beam Hill (for a few more weeks) Dryden, NY On Thu, Mar 17, 2011 at 10:51 AM, Jay McGowan <jw...@cornell.edu> wrote: > The teal was still there when I left at 9:45. All the ducks took > flight shortly after I posted, but luckily almost all of them settled > in again after a few minutes. When I left, the best viewing was from > Rt. 38 at Hart Road, where you can pull off on the north side or park > on Hart Road and scope from there. Most of the birds were along the > shore in the open water there, though when I first found it, the > majority of the birds were closer to George Road. In the afternoon > when the light has shifted, viewing might be better from George Road. > > As I mentioned before, Common Teal is currently considered a > subspecies of Green-winged Teal, but it is still a very rare bird > around here and could well be split before long. They are common in > the Old World. I have found this form twice before at George Road, > first on 5 March 2004, when the birds was present for a few days and > then refound (presumably the same bird?) on April 25; then I found one > there again on 27 March 2007. > > Although it might not stand out if you're not looking for it, this > subspecies is pretty distinctive. The most obvious character is that > instead of having the small white vertical shoulder bar of our > American subspecies, it has a long, bold horizontal white bar along > the side where the wing folds. American Green-wingeds can show some > white in this area too, but it is never as bold as on Eurasian (and > Eurasian lacks the vertical shoulder bar.) Other less obvious > characters include bolder pale edges on the face (the green mask has > bright gold edges) and a white (not buff) wing-stripe (haven't seen > today's bird in flight yet.) > > Here are a few pictures I got this morning. No matter where you look > from the ducks are a little distant, so they're not great, but you can > get a good sense of it (and even compare with some Americans in some > shots.) Scroll on from this photo to see more. > https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/-J_DMNrzf5l0piRft4IwHw?feat=directlink > > Other new arrivals at George Road were a male Bufflehead and a second > female Redhead. > > I will post updates in the coming days if this bird sticks around. > Good luck if you try for it! > > Jay McGowan > Dryden, NY > -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
