[Bristol-Birds] White-winged Scoters at Fort Patrick Henry Lake, Sullivan Co., TN 5 Dec 2014
- From: "BBC Net" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "'bristol-birds'" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2014 23:58:36 -0500
White-winged Scoter Bill Grigsby 5 Dec 2014 white patch.jpg
White-winged Scoter Bill Grigsby 5 Dec 2014.jpg
White-winged Scoter Bill Grigsby 5 Dec 2014 third photo.jpg
Bill Grigsby, birding at Patrick Henry Lake, Sullivan County, TN
Friday, 5 December 2014. He was able to capture
several scoter images from the overlook at the
dam looking towards the Hemlock Park housing
area across the lake. Bill was satisfied that
he had photographed a White-winged Scoter. As
we looked at the images together and talked on
the phone, we both became fairly certain that
at least two different White-winged Scoters
were photographed. The bird in the top image
shows the white wing marking that is expected
in many White-winged Scoters. The eye has
only a slight white marking slanting upwards
towards the back of the crown. The bird(s) in
both the middle and bottom image shown here,
have the white downward curved white marking
behind the eye as expected in many White-winged
Scoters and not in the other two scoter species.
The perplexing aspects of taking these photos
was that Bill did not think he was dealing with
more than one bird while observing and capturing
photo images. The suspicion was raised by studying
these images which suggest at least two individuals.
It seems evident from the head markings that these
photos are of White-winged Scoters. At least one
image shows the white in the wing. We do not
think there is any concern that no white wing
markings are apparent in two photos. We
would like for you to post opinions on whether
we have at least two different White-winged
Scoters. We are inclined to believe that the
bottom two photos above are of the same bird.
Bill Grigsby, Kingsport, TN
Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN (composed this post)
FOOTNOTE: Bill also had 6 Horned Grebes at the
same location.
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