For reasons not completely clear to me, the person finding the tufted 
duck sent this email to me while I was gone.  Now that I am back, I 
am forwarding it to the Osprey list.  I have had a little trouble 
doing that, too. My experience with tufted ducks is that they tend to 
be pretty stable when they do show up, so it may be worthwhile to 
look for this one.

Mr. Bystrak, you don't know me.  I got your e-mail adddress from the 
ANSA website.  I sent the Voice the following report this morning, 
but I thought people might want to see it sooner than Tuesday.  (We 
had wanted to post it on MDOsprey, but we are not members and 
membership is closed.)  I assume you have ways of disseminating the 
information if you think it is worthwhile.

Yesterday, Dec. 25, my son Alan and I left the Blackwater Christmas 
count early.  On the way back to DC, we decided to stop in Cambridge 
and check the Choptank waterfront for diving ducks.  These were 
present in large numbers -- hundreds of scaup, dozens of Canvasback, 
smaller numbers of Ring-Necked Ducks, Long-tailed Ducks, and Surf 
Scoters, plus American Wigeon.

At Great Marsh Park, I put my binoculars on a group of two drake 
Ring-necks and a Canvasback cruising together about 40 feet from 
shore.  I saw that one of the Ring-necks had a thin tuft of feathers 
hanging off the back of its head.  I called my son over.  We said, 
"OK, how else is that bird different from the other one?"  The answer 
was (1) its flanks were bright white rather than light gray, and (2) 
its back was a darker shade of gray.  Only then did we look in our 
Sibley field guide.  The two birds we were looking at might have 
posed for the side-by-side comparison in the book.  Neither of us had 
ever seen a Tufted Duck before, but the light was good, the view was 
close and prolonged, and we have no doubt about the identification.

Harvey Handley
(703) 505-8502



At 02:46 PM 12/30/2008, Jim Brighton wrote:
>I just spent an hour on the Cambridge waterfront searching for the Tufted
>Duck that was mentioned on the Voice of the Naturalist.  Even though I
>didn't find the bird I think it would be great if more people looked and if
>whoever saw the bird could report some details that would be great as well.

3709 Devonshire Drive
Salisbury, MD 21804
410-572-9950
443-783-1268 (cell)