[TN-Bird] Mottled Duck!!
- From: <birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2003 23:20:07 -0500
10/7/03
Ensley area of Shelby Co.
After working all weekend while Jeff turned up another TN 1st-state
record, my day off today had Don Manning and myself on the road to
Memphis at 05:30 this morning.
We stopped and looked in the wet areas off of Riverport Rd. on the way
into Ensley, but only had one mostly hidden group of Mallards in the
same location Jeff had last seen the Mottled. We were trying to come up
with a way to get a look at these birds, but luckily this wasn't
necessary. Elsewhere on the way in were a few Gadwall keeping the many
Wood Ducks company.
We decided to try TVA Lake before going into the Pits, as there are
often ducks using the area. When we 1st pulled up at a little after
08:00, a quick binocular scan immediately found a darker duck with the
many Mallards on the far side of the Lake. I scoped the bird for a few
minutes before getting my camera to make sure it wasn't an American
Black Duck that was trying to sneak in and confuse the issue. While the
duck was very dark, the rich buffy edges and internal markings of the
feathers were obvious, as was the yellow bill, distinct black gape spot
(which would slightly change shape and size as the bird moved), and nice
buffy and unmarked face and throat. After a few minutes of watching the
bird flapped a couple of times, revealing the narrow, but noticeable
white trailing edge of the secondaries.
I now started trying to get photos of the bird (luckily Jeff already has
good shots of this bird), with poor light at the limit of the practical
range of my Coolpix for tough shots like this. While looking at the tiny
LCD viewer on my camera, I noticed another dark duck swim right in front
of the Mottled. I lowered the camera, looked through the scope, and had
an American Black Duck within a few feet of the Mottled. I decided to
get a good comparison of the two before trying to get a shot,as I doubt
I'll get the chance very often. Although the Mottled was dark, the Black
was a little darker, lacking the warm feather edges and markings of the
Mottled. The Black did have some edging visible on feathers, but this
was a narrow and indistinct pale edge, not the broad, buffy edge of the
Mottled. The face and throat of the Mottled was noticeably buffier and
"cleaner", lacking the gray tone of the Black. The bill of the Mottled
was much brighter than the olive bill of the Black Duck. Several times
as the Mottled moved around and preened, the white border of the
speculum was visible, while on the Black no white could be seen on the
wing. The Black was probably there when we arrived, I just happened to
get on the Mottled 1st, and once I got on the Mottled anything else
could have been around without me knowing it!
Shortly afterwards the Mottled began acting alert and walking around, at
which time the Mottled, Black, and four Mallards all left the remainder
of the flock. The Mottled and a couple of Mallards headed back over in
the direction of the wetlands off of Riverport Rd where we had
previously seen Mallards and where Jeff last had the bird, the Black and
two Mallards left going the opposite direction, towards President's
Island. In flight, the white trailing edge of the Mottled was
noticeable, but not near the extent of the Mallards it was flying with.
Unfortunately, I didn't get a shot of the Black and Mottled
side-by-side, as I wish I had tried to sooner now!
Our observation lasted no longer than 10 minutes, and despite searching
everywhere in the area we could think of the rest of the afternoon, we
never saw the Mottled or Black Duck again. I called Jeff after seeing
the bird, and he came down and we toured the same spots again and the
Pits together, with no luck. There are a lot of areas this bird could be
using, but maybe early morning and late afternoon are the best shots for
the bird back at TVA or Riverport Rd. The Pits were pretty slow, but
with good numbers of Green-winged Teal and Shovelers, although Mallards
were pretty scarce. Shorebirds were scarce, other than Least, with a
group of 8 Stilt Sandpipers and a couple of Snipe being the highlights,
along with singles of Western and Semi Sand.
We also made a quick run over to President's Island. We didn't have any
luck with Jeff's Peregrine, but were both blown away by both the numbers
and plumage variation of Eurasian Collared-Doves on the Island. We had a
conservative estimate of 400, with groups of 50-100 in several
locations. Neither Don nor I had ever seen the near-white birds that are
reminiscent of Ringed Turtle-Dove, but clearly as large as the rest of
the Collared's.
We called it a day early afternoon, after being in the right place at
the right time for a change! I will be adding the best shot of the
Mottled I was able to get (thankfully Jeff was able to get some good
shots, as mine aren't very good) to my website shortly, to the "Uncommon
to rare birds Vol. 3" album.
Good birding!!
Mike Todd
McKenzie, TN
Carroll Co.
birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://home.bellsouth.net/p/s/community.dll?ep=16&groupid=116215&ck=
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