Hi -
Your posts prompted me to check on the AOU Checklist website, where I found
some things of interest.
1. The current North American list does not include the Common Scoter, which
means the process of acceptance by the state (California) Records Committee,
followed by consideration and acceptance by the AOU Committee, has not fully
played out. The first record was in Feb. 2015, so evidently this takes a couple
of years even in uncontroversial cases.
2. I looked at the "proposals" posted on the AOU website to see if it was under
consideration. I was surprisedto see that no pending proposals are posted -
only the ones already voted on in the past, and only the vote and members'
comments were posted. In previous years we could access pending proposals and
read the proposers' arguments for changes. So either the Committee has changed
policy, or they are having IT staffing problems.
Wayne
From: "Shawneen Finnegan" <shawneenfinnegan@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "Thomas Love" <tlove@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "obol" <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, November 13, 2016 7:24:08 PM
Subject: [obol] Re: scoter taxonomy?
Tom:
You can find the taxonomy used by the ABA (Clements) here:
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ ;
Common Scoter is monotypic as is Black Scoter
White-winged has three subspecies: Nominate fusca, deglandi , and stejnegeri
Shawneen
Sent from my iPhone
On Nov 13, 2016, at 6:11 PM, Thomas Love < tlove@xxxxxxxxxxxx > wrote:
Can someone forward links to the latest on scoter taxonomy? I think there are
now 5 recognized species:?
Melanitta americana Black Scoter
M. nigra Common Scoter
M. perspicillata Surf Scoter
M. fusca Velvet Scoter
M. deglandi White-w. Scoter
Tom