Hello, Birders. First off, you know what I think about Greater Scaup identification... ;)
That said, yesterday, Monday, Jan. 30th, I saw near downtown Boulder a bird that looked good for Greater Scaup. This bird was on one of the little ponds at the southwest corner of the colossal intersection of Arapahoe Road and Foothills Parkway. Interestingly, these ponds have harbored one or a few presumed Greater Scaups most (all?) winters for the past decade. The bird was a male, close-up and in the immediate vicinity of several Lesser Scaups. If you have a chance to check out the bird, try to view it in direct comparison with the Lessers. The size comparison is actually rather notable. And, of course, head shape, bill size and pattern, wing pattern (the bird flaps its wings a bit, or, at least, it did while I was watching it), and, to some extent, plumage. Re: plumage. Despite The Sibley Guide's dissing of head-gloss color, I'm with Angus Wilson on this one: I find that, in general, Greaters are green-headed and Lessers are purple-headed. A final thought. Am I absolutely certain that this bird is a Greater Scaup? Well, on that note, I'll wrap up with a marvelous quote from Nobel laureate Peter Medawar, in his classic "Advice to a Young Scientist" (1979): "I cannot give any scientist of any age better advice than this: The intensity of the conviction that a hypothesis is true has no bearing on whether it is true or not. The importance of the strength of our conviction is only to provide a proportionately strong incentive to find out if the hypothesis will stand up to critical evaluation." In other words: It doesn't matter what you believe. In particular, don't trust a birder who says "I know what I saw" or "I'm 100% certain" or "I'm absolutely positive" or anything like that. Isn't that wonderful? Birding always keeps us guessing. Life--if lived properly--always keeps us guessing. Ted Floyd tedfloy...@hotmail.com Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
