[Maine-birds] Re: odd aythya duck at Grondin Pond

So, an update on the Aythya sp. I posted the pictures to a few ID sites, and got mixed responses. The conclusion: It's definitely not a scaup. One person from Britain said the it looked good for a juvenile Tufted Duck, based on the head shape. I didn't pay enough attention to this in the field, but the slight peak at the back of the crown I thought I noticed in the field could be the beginning of a tuft. Maybe. I don't know enough about hybrids in Aythya to say anything meaningful about them in relation to this bird, but that probably has to be considered too. 

I won't be able to get back to Grondin Pond for a bit, since I'm swamped with work this week, but hopefully someone can get better pictures of the mystery bird?

I forgot to mention, a dawn seawatch this morning at Dyer Point turned up a late adult Pomarine Jaeger, a Razorbill, 3 Great Cormorants and a dozen or so Harlequin Ducks along with decent numbers of Black Scoters, Common Eider and Red-throated Loon winging south into the stiff southerly wind.

David Rankin

On Tue, Nov 13, 2012 at 9:56 AM, David Rankin <drankin@une.edu> wrote:

Hi all,

This morning I stopped by Grondin Pond hoping to test my scaup ID skills, and instead spent most of my time looking at an bird associating with the ring-necked ducks. It was similar in size and shape to the Ring-necked ducks it was associating with. It's either a female or young male (I don't know how to separate the two, I need to look into that). It bill was what I first noticed, it's bluish, with a dark tip, but lacking the white ring around the tip of the bill and whitish feather patch at the base of the bill the nearby Ring-necks showed. The back was a dark brown, the sides a lighter brown then the back. The head was a uniform brown color, with a slight peak at the back of the crown. I didn't notice the head shape as being much different than the nearby ring-necked ducks.

From what I can tell, this bird seems a bit suggestive of a female Tufted Duck, but the sides don't seem quite right (a bit too pale?) and I'm not sure the head shape fits, but it was noticeably different than the nearby Ring-neck males and females. Could it be just a young male Ring-necked Duck, or a hybrid, or am I just seeing things and it's a perfectly normal Ring-necked duck. Poor pictures can be seen here:

http://flic.kr/p/dt397S

 I'd love any thoughts on the bird.

The bird was visible from the Woodview drive, on the left hand side of the pond, associating with about 6 other Ring-necked Ducks. Several Lesser Scaup and American Wigeon were also present in the back of the pond.

David Rankin

Biddeford

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