Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2000 18:32:31 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Paul O'Brien Subject: Unusual American Wigeon MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit At Violette's Lock on the Potomac today (Feb. 4) there was an American Wi= geon with a yellow face, including cheeks and throat. The typical green patch behind the eye was normal and the crown was white, but had a wedge of dar= k gray running down the middle of the rear crown. There was also a wedge o= f gray extending from the neck forward below the auriculars. Strange bird.= I once saw one with an almost entirely straw-colored head. There's a funny gene knocking about in these Wigeons. Also at Violette's lock were Pied-billed Grebes, @ 100 Lesser Scaup and 1= -2 Greaters, but no Tufted Duck, despite a valiant effort. There were dabbl= ers on the rapids below the "falls", including Wigeons, Gadwalls, Mallards, Blacks and one Pintail. The divers included Canvasbacks, Ring-neckeds, Buffleheads, a Red-breasted Merganser and Ruddys along with hundreds of Canada Geese. Yesterday (Feb.3) there was a single blue-phase Snow Goose among the hund= reds of Canadas at Black Hill. The usual ducks were there: Black, Mallard, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Canvasback, Redhead, Ring-necked, Goldeneye, Bufflehead, Hooded Merganser and Ruddy. I also checked Lake Frank, but i= t was frozen tight, and Lake Needwood, where there were hundreds more Canad= a Geese and a few Ring-necked Ducks, but no Eurasian Wigeon, either on the lakes or on Rock Creek at least as far down as Southlawn Lane. Where did= the Wigeon go? Paul O'Brien Rockville, MD pobrien776@aol.com ========================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ========================================================================= ===========================================================================