Hi Tweets

Eric Stahlfeld writes:

>This afternoon there were two male Eurasian Race Green-winged Teals and one
>(presumably) female in the Black River Slough
(snip)

that 'crecca'-type male teals mess around with 'carolinensis' females is
proved by intergrades showing up in winter with intermediate features.
Interestingly, all the 'grades I've seen have been in teal flocks containing
at least one classic 'crecca'-type male, sometimes more. This is no
coincidence, I'm sure, but I can't figure out why this should be, other than
maybe, just a guess, that birds from a distinct local population in an
Alaskan/Siberian contact-zone will winter in the same place, and that one
large teal-flock typically wintering at a given location is actually
comprised of several of these discrete populations.

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net