Dear Tweeters,

Excuse the late post; yesterday (March 2, 2003) I
observed a male Anas crecca that had both the
horizontal mark of a "Common Teal" and the vertical
mark of an "American" Green Winged Teal. It was in the
Edison Slough, off Smith Road, just before the gate
that leads to a dike access; this access used to be
open to the public but is now apparently closed.

There were about 35 Green-winged Teal in the slough.
The unusual bird immediately caught my attention
because it had white stripes in the wings, visible as
it flew a few meters here, a few meters there.
Whenever it settled, I could see that the vertical
stripe was thinner than those on the other male teal
that were present. The horizontal stripe was quite
strong, obviously visible when the bird was walking
about on the mud. This stripe was buffy white. I could
see this horizontal stripe with the naked eye at a
range of nine meters; the vertical one was also
visible, but less noticeable. None of the other birds
had a horizontal stripe. The bird was identical to the
other males in every way that I could determine,
except for the thinness of the vertical stripe and the
presence of the horizontal one.

Yours truly,
Gary Bletsch
garybletsch at yahoo.com
near Lyman, WA

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