Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2003 14:20:14 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Sherry Peruzzi Subject: Re: Re Scaup ID MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Well, that post was obviously an April Foodl joke -- everybody knows that the female Lesser Scaup turns her eggs with the LEFT foot. And it should have said that a *healthy* Scaup lightens up with age. Modern medications can help those who don't. Getting it to vocalize for 50 minutes once or twice a week can further improve its outlook. Sherry "dw.holmes" wrote: > Thought this might be timely - > > Posted on OBOL (Oregon Birders On Line) today by Mike Denny > > "Sometime ago I had an outstanding discussion with a well known western ornithologist concerning female scaup and how to separate the three species in the field. His points are as follows: > > Greater-----The female is larger and more robust than say a female bufflehead. The overall head shape including the residual crest is much rounder than say a post ocular spot in front of a female black-chinned hummingbirds eye. Last but not least is the zygodactyl placement of the toes on birds hatched north of the Peace River in Canada. > > Cordilleran-----This female is virtually identical in every way to the female Greater say for the spastic pre-flight tail twitch duly noted by Nedly & Epert 1986. There can also be some noticeable discoloration along the ventral line due to this species propensity for turning on its flanks to preen while setting on sewage lagoons. > > Lesser----This species was recently found to be a cavity nester and the notable process on the posterior surface of the skull was discovered to allow the bird to place its head into the nest chamber and push up while turning its eggs with the right foot, thus it can retain its balance while perched on the lip of the cavity. Eye color is also a reliable indicator of age in this gender. Hatched with very dark irises these birds lighten up with age. > > Well that is it for now. Just thought you might want to know this on this first day of April." > ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================