Mike and Tweeters,

Although Roberson's "Rare Birds of the West Coast" (1980) is a useful
source of information on Asiatic vagrants such as Baikal Teal, a more
up-to date summary can be found in the "ABA Checklist: Birds of the
Continental United States and Canada" (Sixth edition, 2002) on pages
72 and 73.

For Alaska, the ABA Checklist Committee states, "at least ten records
from W and N Alaska......but only two recent: a male (ph.) W of
Prudhoe Bay near Milne Pt. for at least five weeks after 13 June 1993
(AB 47:1139, cph. p. 1165); and one immature male (*) at St. George
I., Pribilof Is., 24 September 2001 (University of Alaska Museum).

They do not consider any records for BC, WA, OR and CA since 1975 to
be valid. They list the same 7 records listed by Mike. However, they
report different dates for two of these: the Ladner, BC specimen is
listed as Nov. 20 (not Dec. 20) 1957, and the Gray Lodge Refuge NWR,
CA specimen is listed as Jan. 4, 1975 (not 1974).

They also state: "Single additional records detailed in Roberson
(1980) from Washington and California, and records from elsewhere in
North America (Colorado, Ontario, Oklahoma, Louisiana, North Carolina,
and Ohio) have been questioned, largely because of origin, and are not
accepted. The species has suffered substantial population declines in
recent decades. Most of the population now winters in South Korea,
Japan, and China, and is listed as "vulnerable", with its current
population estimated at 210,000 (BirdLife International 2000), and
perhaps as high as 300,000 (BirdLife International 2001)."

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net



----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Patterson <celata at pacifier.com>
To: Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Friday, December 17, 2004 7:51 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Baikal Teal records


> As always the question of wildness will pop up relative
> to ducks, especially pretty ones like Baikal Teal. For
> perspective and in an effort to look for patterns of
> vagrancy, Roberson's Rare Birds of the Pacific Coast (1980
> and no doubt missing some recent records) lists the following
> for Baikal Teal:
>
> Alaska 11 records - 6 spring, 1 summer, 4 fall
> Ladner, BC - 1 on 20 Dec 1957
> Dungeness, WA - 1 in Jan 1920
> Anacortes, WA - 1 on Jun 1979 (prob escape)
> Finley NWR, OR - 1 on 12 Jan 1974
> Niland, CA - 1 on 29 Dec 1946
> Riverside, CA - 1 on 12 Jan 1974
> Honey Lake, CA - 1 on 1 Dec 1974
> Gray Lodge Ref, CA - 4 Jan 1974
>
> --
> Mike Patterson
> Astoria, OR
> celata at pacifier.com
>