Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2000 18:06:29 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Allan Haury Subject: Re: Tufted Duck MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hello all, I also went to the Washington Marina to look for the Tufted Duck. Sorry I missed you there Arlene but I missed a turn and got there via a long way around, and stopped for a bite to eat. There were a number of ducks spread out next to the far shoreline to the Northwest of the marina (another somewhat long distance view). There were 8 Ring-necked Ducks, a few Cans, 4 Hooded Mergs, 2 Pied-billed Grebe, a number of Canada Geese and a few Scaup sp. Beyond this group, in a small indent in the shoreline, were 6 Pied-billed Grebe. At the marina there were 9 or 10 American Coot on the grass next to the building. Al Haury cactuswren@erols.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Arlene Ripley" To: Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2000 4:39 PM Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Tufted Duck > At 01:57 PM 2/15/00 , you wrote: > >Greetings MD birders, > > > >The male Tufted Duck was present again in the Washington Channel at mid-day > >today (15 Feb). The bird can be seen from Haines Point. Look across the > >channel in a flock of (mostly) Lesser Scaup along the Fort McNair seawall . > > > >Ken > >------ > > > Ken, > > I'm not sure we are talking about the same bird, but I spent a good deal of > time mid-morning until around noon at Haines Point scoping the scaup flock > in Washington Channel. This is the flock which is along the Ft. McNair > seawall. After carefully searching the flock, I found what I assumed was > the Tufted Duck -- a dark-backed duck with reasonably white flanks. As I > was watching it (it was sleeping with head tucked back at the time), Al > Haury drove up and I showed him the bird. He too, thought it must be the > Tufted Duck. > > As luck would have it, I have a military ID so can gain access to Ft. > McNair. Since Al wanted to take photos, I offered to take him with me into > the installation. We had no trouble finding the bird, still quite close to > the seawall. We *wanted* to make it a Tufted Duck but other features began > to rear their ugly head -- first no plume, second the flanks were not as > white as some of the other scaups, the crown was not rounded but peaked, > there was a white ring on the bill behind the black tip and a distinct band > of white feathers behind the bill. The vertical wedge of white feathers > separating the black chest from the flanks was also easily observed. In > short, a nice specimen of a Ring-necked Duck. Needless to say we were very > disappointed. I suspect that this is the bird being scoped from a distance > from Haynes Point. There were no other male Ring-bills in this flock. > > I then proceeded to the marina south of National Airport for a quick check > -- very few birds there and no Tufted Duck. I didn't have time to check the > spots along the parkway south of the Wilson bridge. > > > > ////// Arlene Ripley > | || Calvert County, MD > | 0 || aripley@nestbox.com > | || http://www.nestbox.com > || > > ======================================================================= > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ======================================================================= ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================