Does anyone have photographs of the male scaup that has been hanging around off Stewart Park this summer? I see that people have been reporting it to eBird as a Greater. I haven't been birding there much and have only seen the bird once. At that time I had only one brief view before it dived and my impression was also of Greater.
But, I just looked at Chris Wood's July photo (presumably the same bird) at http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinicola/5923723524/in/pool-437129@N20/, and that makes it looks more like a Lesser. In that photo the broad white stripe across the secondaries suddenly turns to dull gray in the primaries like a Lesser, not continuing bright white into the primaries like a Greater (see http://www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/proof.htm for an old example). I realize that the bird is in the process of closing its wing for the up-stroke, and so white primaries could be shaded, but it sure is not convincing of Greater and is very suggestive of Lesser. Chris, do you have other photos in the sequence that help see what it really is? Does anyone have any photos? As I said, my brief impression was of Greater, but it seemed to be missing feathers on the head that confused things. I might just stop down there tomorrow morning and take another look. Kevin -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
