Hi Rob, I think you're probably right about the id but as far as I know no zoos in the area have ever had this species in their collections. About it being a vagrant, I don't know. It would seem like a stretch for it to come from Australia to here, but you never know. How many Australian vagrants had we had in NY? Not any as far as I know. Neat find though.
Andrew Andrew v. F. Block Consulting Field Biologist & Eco-tour Leader 37 Tanglewylde Avenue Bronxville, Westchester Co., New York 10708-3131 Phone: (914) 337-1229; Cell: (914) 886-5124; Fax: (914) 771-8036 "When the last individual of a race of living things breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again..." - William Beebe, first Curator of Birds, Bronx Zoo "Crikey! Have a look at that!" - Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter "Just like the white winged dove sings a song, sounds like she's singing whoo, baby...whoo...said whoo" - Stephanie L. Nicks, Edge of 17, Bella Donna ________________________________ From: Rob Jett <citybir...@earthlink.net> To: NYSBirds <NYSBirds-L@cornell.edu> Sent: Fri, January 22, 2010 10:49:24 PM Subject: [nysbirds-l] Slow-birding-day post Prospect Park's lake is notorious for hosting some very strange hybrid waterfowl, so I wasn't too surprised to find an odd-looking shoveler in the park. What was first perceived to be a Northern Shoveler x Blue-winged Teal hybrid, I'm now pretty certain is actually an Australasian Shoveler (Anas rhynchotis). I have some photos and a short video on my blog here: http://citybirder.blogspot.com/2010/01/strange-waterfowl.html Just wondering: - How common are Australasian Shovelers in zoos or private collections? - Have Australasian Shovelers ever been recorded outside of New Zealand or Australia? - What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow? Good birding, Rob -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ -- -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
