Hi all, I finally got back up to Montezuma to look at the continuing teal yesterday. Better views revealed, as Dave posted, that the bird does indeed have distinct black speckling on the breast and side feathers, quashing any lingering doubts I might have had that it is anything but a hybrid BLUE-WINGED x CINNAMON TEAL. Please, if you submitted this bird to eBird, I encourage you to change your sightings to Blue-winged x Cinnamon Teal (hybrid) so I can validate the sightings. This is a disappointing outcome for many of us excited about keeping track of lists, but it is indeed still a very rare bird, so I will happily add it to my list of duck hybrids for the year (8+ combinations) instead.
Better teal photos here: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S25724973 http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S25725335 Otherwise, a male EURASIAN WIGEON was the only other duck of note in the area. Puddlers was full of geese, including over 100 Snow Geese, but as always was unpleasantly difficult to get to with the continuing deterioration of Towpath Road. Dunlin, Long-billed Dowitchers, and a Pectoral Sandpiper continue at the Visitor Center. Chris Wood reports that the teal is still present today, along with two male Eurasian Wigeon. I spent the morning today scoping Cayuga Lake from Long Point State Park and various points in Aurora. Loons were out in force, with a count of 1345 from the bluffs at the north end of lake road and many more in both directions. Despite these concentrations, I was unable to find any different loons, even a Red-throated, among them. Gull numbers were also good, with many hundreds of Herring Gulls forming dense feeding frenzies out on the lake, especially off the Mackenzie-Childs bluffs. Up to eight Bonaparte's Gulls joined these flocks, as well as a single 1st-cycle Lesser Black-backed. Otherwise, a Red-necked Grebe off Long Point and a White-winged Scoter off the Lake Road bluffs were about the only different species I was able to turn up. Lake Ontario yielded Sabine's Gull, jaegers, and more today, so I had high hopes for something on our lake, but no luck. -- Jay McGowan Macaulay Library Cornell Lab of Ornithology [email protected] -- 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/ --
