[birdky] RPT: Chasing Eurasian Wigeon

From: "Palmer-Ball, Brainard (EPPC OOS KNPC)" <Brainard.Palmer-Ball@xxxxxx>
To: "BIRDKY" <birdky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2007 10:55:03 -0500
Early last week I heard about TWO recent reports of Eurasian Wigeon in
Kentucky ... on Monday, December 17th, John Brunjes reported seeing a
drake in a field off the Ohio River near South Shore, Greenup County,
during his aerial waterfowl survey for the Ky Dept of Fish and Wildlife
Resources. The bird was with a flock of American Wigeon and these birds
were among a good concentration of a few thousand ducks in the overall
vicinity. During conversations with John about that bird, I learned that
Mike Morton had recently reported one at the Sauerheber Unit of Sloughs
WMA in Henderson County. In follow-up emails with Mike, I learned that
he had also seen a drake in the Woods Tract on December 10th. Although
both seemed like long shots at being refound, I made an effort at both
late last week as follows:
 
On December 19th, Rick Seelhorst and I looked at most of the potential
habitat for dabblers in northern Greenup County, but found only a few
Mallards on the Kentucky side. We then went across the river to the
flooded bottoms of the Scioto River at Portsmouth, Ohio, and found a few
hundred ducks of about a dozen species, but no wigeon. While scanning
the backwaters, however, I found a juvenile Black-legged Kittiwake, a
bird I've put in quite a bit of effort to find in KY the past month! We
stayed with the bird for about two hours, hoping it might go out to feed
or roost on the Ohio River, but it stayed on the lower Scioto, feeding
as close as 1/2 mile from the state line ... darn! 
 
On December 21st, Eddie Huber and I visited a dreary Henderson County
just to look through the waterfowl at Sauerheber with Charlie Crawford.
The waterfowl along KY 268 are still putting on a great show, but we
could not find anything different among about 100 American Wigeon at
scattered points. There are now perhaps a few thousand Greater
White-fronted Geese and 1000+ Snow Geese at the mgmt area. We also saw
at least 7 Cackling Geese and 5 Ross's Geese. There were also at least 6
Dunlin and 2 Least Sandpipers and 6 imm. Bald Eagles. Eddie and I
continued south, but the day continued to be quite dreary and the only
other highlights were a dark morph adult Harlan's Hawk in Union County
and 3 female Common Mergansers on Lake Peewee.
 
On December 24th, Amy and I returned to the environs around Portsmouth,
Ohio, to see if the kittiwake might be along the Ohio River. Both the
Scioto and Ohio were back within their banks, but very few birds were
seen. There was only 1 Ring-billed Gull at Greenup Dam, a few around
Portsmouth, and about 35 with 14 Bonies at Meldahl Dam. The largest
number of gulls we saw were at Cave Run Lake above the dam where about
400 Ringers and 8 Bonies were rafted up, appearing to have just arrived.
There was plenty of water being discharged from the dam, but none were
feeding there.
 
As a footnote to the reports of Eurasian Wigeon, both John and Mike are
not sure they can eliminate hybrid Eurasian x Americans from
consideration based on the distance of their looks; however, during
conversations with Jay Stenger of Cincinnati about birds in the
Portsmouth area, I found that he had a drake Eurasian Wigeon above
Meldahl Dam in March of 1988! I'm not sure how that record has fallen
through the cracks until now! Thanks, Jay, for providing details :o)
 
bpb, Frankfort
[birdky] RPT: Chasing Eurasian Wigeon

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