I stopped by Mud Lock this morning at 8:30 for a casual scan. Across the channel was presumably one of the scaup that has been reported all summer, hanging out interestingly with a cormorant. When I took a closer look, however, I was perplexed. This "scaup" had femalish colors: brown head, yellow eyes, brown/grey body with some hints of whitish/lighter-grey feathers showing under the wings... but it lacked any white behind the bill, and its bill was not light blue but dark/black. It looked a lot like a female goldeneye!
Does the description above match what others have observed, and is it just some form of scaup plumage not shown in Sibley's? Unfortunately I did not take any pictures. Suan -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
