[TN-Bird] Lauderdale Waterfowl Refuge, Lauderdale Co

12/31/07
Lauderdale Waterfowl Refuge; Halls, Lauderdale Co

I spent 4.5 hours today scanning through the hordes of waterfowl at 
Lauderdale. As Jeff mentioned, the Eagles and trains are constantly 
shuffling the birds around. It took me 2 hours to finally find one of the 
blue Ross's, the same bird I originally found. I watched it for about 15 
minutes, before it got into a tight group of Blues and Snows, never to be 
seen again. I didn't see the 2nd bird that Jeff was able to get photos of 
yesterday. Also today, I had long looks at what I presume to be a dark-morph 
Snow x Ross's hybrid. The bird was extremely similar in plumage to the 
dark-morph adult Ross's I originally found, if not quite as black (but still 
darker than all the adjacent blue Snow Geese), but the bill was intermediate 
in both size and having a small but visible tomial line extending the length 
of the bill (not as heavy as typical for Snow Goose though). This bird was 
also intermediate in size. There are several Blue Geese that mimic the 
plumage pattern of the dark Ross's, they just don't do it in black.

Other than the mass of geese, waterfowl numbers were down some. Lots of 
Canvasbacks around though, and Ring-necks are about as common as Mallards 
right now. Now, where is that Tufted Duck for '08?

Good Birding, and Happy New Year ('07 was a blast)

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

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