Subject: border patrol discovery
Date: Mar 16 19:30:29 2001
From: Netta Smith - nettasmith at home.com
Hello, tweets.
Today (3/16) we birded Reifel Refuge in sw. BC and the Blaine area in nw.
WA. Nothing especially rare to report, although I was surprised to see a
Marbled Godwit near the end of the road that leads west from Blaine along
the water, just S of the border (it divides Drayton Harbor from Semiahmoo
Bay, just as Semiahmoo Spit does). Perhaps others have reported this bird
earlier in the winter. This road is always good for birds, especially right
at the end. There are lots of Common Loons there, and today one was in full
alternate plumage.
The most interesting birds at Reifel were two different male Mallard x
Northern Pintail hybrids, one at the parking lot (in the hordes of Mallards
that mug you as you leave your parked car) and one at the north end, where
the path leads to the tall tower. Both were very tame and allowed close-up
photography. They are recognizably different from one another (the
parking-lot one has a white stripe up its neck, the other one doesn't), but
both are cleverly intermediate between their two parents. I don't recall
reading about these in Reifel messages on tweeters, but I may have missed
them. They are certainly regular birds there, and the only other individual
of this hybrid type I've ever seen was at Reifel many years ago. Hybrid
ducks, although more common than hybrids of any other type of bird, are
still quite rare and special. My guess is that these hybrids are from a
male pintail x female mallard and that they imprinted on their mothers, thus
they joined mallard rather than pintail flocks.
I should add that the tame Sandhill Crane is another worthwhile reason to
visit Reifel - I shot up a half roll of film on it at pointblank range,
trying for photos of its perforate nostrils and individual feather tracts.
How can you surpass a magnificent bird that walks right up to you?
We had known about and were further informed about the two goshawks and the
various species of owls that were present at Reifel, and we didn't see any
of them, with much scrutinizing of dense foliage. On the way home, I was
thinking how much birding has changed. When I was a beginning birder (way
back in the last century), we almost never knew what we were going to see,
so expectations were low, and they were often exceeded. Nowadays, birders
go out with great expectations looking for one or more rarities that have
been reported on the hot line or the bird box or the internet or the
notebooks that are kept at refuges. At least some of the time the birds in
question don't show themselves, and I can only imagine there is an attendant
feeling of disappointment (perhaps I should speak only for myself, after
several stake-out strike-outs this winter).
What made me think of this was because I was so happy that I *didn't* know
about the hybrid ducks and therefore could discover them for myself! To me,
good birding will always equate with discovery.
Dennis Paulson
--
Netta Smith and Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115