Late this afternoon, I found a Drake Common Teal (Eurasian) or if you prefer, Green-winged Teal (Eurasian) in the company of several American Green-winged Teals at Brookville Park Queens. This is the same area I found one last year, though the date was later, see here - http://birdingdude.blogspot.com/2014/03/photo-study-of-green-winged-vs-common.html
Among the 23 other Green-winged Teals, there was one that could be a candidate for an intergrade, Common X American. The facial pattern on this duck was well defined like the Common Teal but while the vertical stripe was strong, the horizontal stripe indicating Common Teal parentage was weak. I might just chalk it up as a variation of American Green-winged Teal unless my photos convince otherwise. Other notables in the Brookville area included 1 Black-crowned Night-Heron and 4 Greater Yellowlegs. The latter up from 2 indicating new arrivals, probably frozen out from other areas. Earlier at Idlewild Preserve, another area in Southeast Queens, I had a Rough-legged Hawk perched near "snake road" off of Rockaway Blvd. A note on Snake Road, it is a treacherous stretch and folks do not drive that road slowly so be very careful if you bird that area. Namasté, -- 風 Swift as the wind 林 Quiet as the forest 火 Conquer like the fire 山 Steady as the mountain Sun Tzu <http://refspace.com/quotes/Sun_Tzu> *The Art of War* <http://refspace.com/quotes/The_Art_of_War> (\__/) (= '.'=) (") _ (") Andrew Baksh www.birdingdude.blogspot.com -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
