FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] Long-tailed Duck images

[<birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

KY Birders,

Since it looks like it's shaping up to be a good year for Long-tailed Ducks 
(we've had two, and possibly three different individuals on KY Lake in Henry 
Co, TN  the last couple of weeks), I've posted some images of a very dark 
Long-tailed Duck I found at Paris Landing in Henry Co on Thanksgiving morning. 
This bird was quite distant on that day, and it took a process of elimination 
to get to a Long-tailed Duck identification. The plumage just isn't shown in 
any of the North American field guides, though it is discussed quite well (but 
not shown) in the Waterfowl Identification Guide by Madge and Burns. Maybe this 
will help somebody else down the road. I looked at a ton of images of 
Long-tailed Duck on the web, and only found a handful that came close to the 
appearance of this bird. This may be largely because this is a pretty drab 
plumage by Long-tailed Duck standards, but most folks that I've heard from 
haven't seen one this dark on the face.

Yesterday looks were distant and my shots were pretty poor, but do portray the 
looks I was getting pretty well. I had much better looks and shots today, for 
an interesting series of shots. The images are in the following gallery, 
double-clicking any image should take it to the larger size, and you can 
navigate using the previous and next tabs among the photos.

http://www.pbase.com/mctodd/winter_20072008

The last three rows of images are of this bird, the 1st four shots are from 
yesterday, followed by six more from today. These shots also show how much 
different the bird could look due to angle and lighting. Just before these 
shots are some distant shots of a much-whiter female-type Long-tailed Duck at 
the same location a few days before.

Good Birding!!

Mike Todd
McKenzie, TN
birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.pbase.com/mctodd