Or, should that be reducks?
I received messages off-list on the identification of my Scaup from eight
people, evenly split between Greater and Lesser.
Two of the people who thought it was a Lesser Scaup cited the lack of a
facial patch. It is not my intention to argue the ID; however, I will
question this on two counts. Sibley's illustrations show a facial patch
on both the Lesser and Greater Scaup, adult nonbreeding female, albeit,
the patch is more pronounced on the Greater's illustration. He does not
show a patch on breeding females of either variety.
Sibley does place the breeding season as September to March and the
nonbreeding season as March to September.
Based on the assumption that this bird is currently changing state from
breeding to nonbreeding, and using Sibley as my source, I'd say that the
facial patch is not a great indicator at this point. Also, if you look
closely at my photograph, http://www.pbase.com/bb_etc/image/57044959, you
can see a light-colored patch on the right-hand side of the bird's head,
down about 45° from the eye. I noticed traces of this on several of my
other photographs, but I was inclined to attribute it to sunlight;
however, on the picture I just cited, the bird was backlit.
As for head shape, well, I took a great many photographs of this bird
over the past few days and I found the head shape to be very variable.
I certainly do not profess to be an expert on this subject, and I lack
experience with Scaup. Indeed, the number of Scaup I have seen close up
number one, but I have yet to find a clue or argument that proves
conclusively that the bird is a Lesser or a Greater.
I'd like to thank everyone who responded to my request for help.
Perhaps people will have fun with this image I took at Huntley Meadows on
Sunday. It involves a disruption of the space-time continuum:
http://www.pbase.com/image/57205105
Cliff Otto
Alexandria
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