Hi Brian:
Eurasian Wigeon, always a nice sighting, is no longer a reviewable
Maryland species. It was taken off of the review list in 1992, since
it is unusual, but regular, in Maryland.
I'll copy your message, below, to MD Osprey. People may be interested
in this as a "county" bird.
Thanks for the detailed sighting report and for checking on its review status.
FYI ... the MD Review List can be found here ...
http://www.mdbirds.org/mddcrc/pdf/mdreview.pdf
... and the DC Review List is here ...
http://www.mdbirds.org/mddcrc/pdf/dcreview.pdf
Thanks, again. Good to hear from you!
Phil
At 17:13 03/04/2007, wrote:
>Hello. I'm a (relatively inactive, unfortunately) birder who has
>been loosely affiliated with MOS for about 20 years. Because I have
>two young children (ages 7 and 4), I don't bird nearly as much as
>I'd like. Still, I do try to get out every now and then. Today I
>took the boys for a country drive in Baltimore County, north of Hunt
>Valley, since my eldest is working on his first school
>"report"--he's researching American Kestrels and wanted to go get a
>good look at one. After we got him a satisfactory look at his
>kestrel, I proceeded to drive around for awhile (since the boys were
>unusally amenable!), checking farm ponds for migrating
>waterfowl. While 5 Hoodies and 6 scaup were decent finds, I was
>thrilled to find a pond that (among 40+ mallards and 100+ CAGO) had
>a group of 18 Am. Wigeons and a spectacular male Eurasian Wigeon!
>
>It had all of the diagnostic marks--the bright rusty head and its
>contrast with the pale blue, black-tipped bill immediately caught my
>attention. The bird was precisely the size of the other baldpates,
>and shared their broad white wing stripe and jet black rear end, but
>was distinctly buffier in front, more uniformly gray on the back,
>and had a much larger and more clearly defined area of white on the
>belly and sides. I (and my two little boys, who even got excited
>about it) watched the bird for almost 20 minutes, both in my 8.5 x
>44 Swift Audubon binocs and my spotting scope, from a distance of
>about 150 yards. He couldn't have been more cooperative, as after
>swimming around for 5-6 minutes, the entire group of 19 Wigeons
>waddled out of the pond and fed on the grasses just above the farm
>pond for another 8 minutes. I had him in the scope this entire
>time, and he even bowed down for me a few times to show his buffier
>pate, paler and less reddish that the rest of his striking
>head. Unfortunately, when I was back in my car, shielding myself
>from the biting wind and calling my parents (birders, too, who live
>in southern PA) with the news, the entire group took off from the
>field and headed west and out of sight--this put a quick end to my
>parents' dilemma of getting in their car for the 60-mile drive!
>
>I've seen Eurasian Wigeons twice before: in England in the 1980's
>and at Chincoteague in spring of '91. I've been a birder for over
>30 years (I started as a ten year-old!) and there is absolutely no
>doubt in my mind about this sighting. I'm not a subscriber to MDOsprey.
[snip].
>Here are the details of the sighting:
>
>Sunday, March 4th
>First spotted approx. 1:25 pm. Observed until flock flew away at 1:42 pm.
>Location: Farm pond on north side of Cold Bottom Road, just 0.2
>miles east of intersection with Yeoho Rd. (roughly a mile northwest
>of the little village of Belfast)
>
>The farm has two large ponds--the western one was still mostly
>frozen; the eastern one was open and this was where the Wigeons
>were. The pond is behind a fenced-in pasture that contained six
>black cows and a green-roofed hay shelter for them. It is directly
>opposite house #1615 (which has a swingset in the front yard) on
>Cold Bottom Road. The two ponds lie between the long driveway to
>#1620 Cold Bottom Road and the next farm, which is called "Goose Hall Farm".
>
>I know that Eurasian Wigeons do turn up with some regularity on the
>east coast, particularly this time of year. But this is also only
>the second one I've seen in the U.S. in three decades of
>birding. So . . . I'm wondering if this sighting is worthy of
>submitting to the MOS Records Committee. If so . . . how do I do
>that? And, I suspect someone may want to post this on MDOsprey,
>even though I watched the entire flock leave the pond and wonder if
>there's much of a chance that they'll return, since it is time for
>them to be heading north about now.
>
>Thanks for any help/advice you can offer! Please reply to all, as I
>check my work email (I teach at the Friends School of Baltimore)
>daily but only check my AOL account once or twice a week.
[snip]
>--Brian Rollfinke
===================================================
Phil Davis, Secretary
MD/DC Records Committee
2549 Vale Court
Davidsonville, Maryland 21035 USA
301-261-0184
mailto:[log in to unmask]
MD/DCRC Web site: http://www.MDBirds.org/mddcrc/rcindex.html
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