Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 09:40:19 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Leslie Roslund Subject: EURASIAN WIDGEON IN TALBOT COUNTY MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Dear Ospreyers: This morning around 8:45, while lingering over my morning coffee in our sun room, which provides a clear view out onto Leeds Creek, I noticed a duck near the outer edge of the flock of 300 Canada Geese that were also using the creek. Quick inspection with my 8x42 binocs confirmed that this was no common visitor. My first flash of thought was that it was a Widgeon. Since American Widgeon has been seen by me only once on these waters, I quickly set up my 32 power KOWA TSN-824 for a better look. But this was no American Widgeon! It was a Eurasian Widgeon - male in breeding plumage - the buff-colored forehead and cap on the otherwise reddish head was easy to see in the scope. Gray sides and dark black rump were also highly visible. After about 3 minutes in the scope, the bird decided he had given us long enough, and departed, flying high and fast toward the south-east. Viewing conditions were splendid. Through the time of observation, the bird was about 50 yards away. Its position was ssw from me, and it was perfectly lighted by the bright sun fairly low in the sky to the south-east. No clouds, little wind, temp around 48 degrees. Much of the time the bird was facing towards me, giving excellent views of the head and crown. At other times it provided nice side profile views. My wife was also viewing the bird, mostly with her 8x42s, for, admittedly, I was hogging the scope during the brief visit of this bird. There was not enough time for me to get any photographs. This was yard bird number 156 for this site. Good birding, Les Roslund Lroslund@bluecrab.org Easton, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================