Hi Tweets,

Given the similarity in situation to Eurobirders' problems with provenance
of North American waterfowl species, I'd suggest that *any* sighting of Smew
Mergus albellus in Cascadia should be considered an escapee until a
threshhold of compelling inferential context indicates otherwise; there's
just far too many in captivity now to make the judgement that a
locally-appearing Smew is automatically wild a tenable assumption. And
cannot say it often enough: a bird acting 'wild' could still go home in time
for tea at the local waterfowl aviary: by itself, 'wildness' does not
eliminate a domestic or feral origin. Smew in particular seems to be a wary
bird even as a known escapee.

Speaking of tree-nesting hybridisers, I saw some slides today of a drake
Barrow's Goldeneye Bucephala islandica X Common Goldeneye B. clangula that
were taken at Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park. A rather messy little guy, not
showing cleanly intermediate features but much more blurred (ie--big,
vaguely crescentic loral patch, messy back/wing pattern), leading to the
speculation that it is a second- or third-generation bird.

I understand that in Europe Smew X Common Goldeneye (just 'Goldeneye' there)
isn't a terrifically rare hybrid, and is equivalent to our Hooded Merganser
Lophodytes cucullatus X Common Goldeneye/Barrow's Goldeneye/Bufflehead B.
albeola complex of hybrids.

While watching the male Hooded at Lost Lagoon courting a female Common
Goldeneye in competition with the goldeneye males, and typically consorting
with the goldeneyes even in the presence of female Hooded Mergansers, Mary
Teesdale suggested he was hatched from an Hooded's egg 'dumped' into a
goldeneye nest and had imprinted on that species.

A caution, also: this time of year is when some subadult male Bufflehead
look very strange at this point in their molt sequence, with
aberrant-looking female-type body plumage and a larger-than-usual white
cockade emergent on the head. I learned the hard way that not every
weird-looking Bufflehead is a hybrid (insert obligatory lame joke about
young males being a species apart anyway). Gotta repeat that mantra: horses,
not zebras; horses, not zebras...

Michael Price A brave world, Sir,
Vancouver BC Canada full of religion, knavery and change;
mprice at mindlink.net we shall shortly see better days.
Aphra Behn (1640-1689)