It would be great if an Eider appeared, but a note of caution: on 12/15/2014 I scoped a big black and white Mallard (probably x Domestic) on Dryden Lake. I think Jay had reported this previously. I can easily see how it could be confused with an eider for the coloration, but the bill on my observed duck was ‘mallard’ as was the call which it did a large number of times while I watched it in the scope. I have some awful digiscoped images of it: it had patchy black on the cheek and eyes, white nape, black shoulders, black back but white patches on the wings, black tail. It swam with Mallards and appeared to be 20-30% larger than them. Eider would probably have all white back and a more defined black cap and nape, white cheek.
Hoping it IS an eider…. hopefully someone else will confirm one or the other. ChrisP On Dec 27, 2014, at 14:50 , Jill Vaughan <jil...@gmail.com<mailto:jil...@gmail.com>> wrote: Marianne ludwigsen just called me from Dryden Lake where she saw a BALD EAGLE and a COMMON EIDER. -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- 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/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/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/ --
