First the disclaimer: I have no real position on the wildness
of the Baikal Teal seen at Kent Ponds other than that it
certainly looks like a Baikal Teal. It falls into the pattern
for accepted records. It is a good candidate for being real.
I'm not going to chase it, so have no problems with it being
judged fake.

It's the aviary stuff that I feel oblidged to talk about.
Licensed, commercial aviculturalist are, I'm sure, all
responsible, law abiding folk who follow all the rules. But
accidents happen and not every duck-keeper is a professional.
I live within 10 miles of a very nice lady who thinks teal
are just the cutest things. She has lots of disposable
income and a leaky aviary.

Aside from the Emperor Geese and Trumpeter Swans that roam the
wetland in the back 40, there is a mesh containment area with
10 or 15 species of teal. She likes the small waterfowl.
Gargany has escaped at least once.

In Cottage Grove 20 years ago the local rich guy had a private
pond with all kinds of weird imported stuff. Allowed to breed
freely without regard to species barriers.

Wildlife Safari lost a mess of Egyptian Geese and White-faced
Whistling Duck which turned up for years around Sutherlin, OR.

My guess is there are a great many more people with small
non-commercial collections and no clue how to contain them.
Like rabbits and turtles bought for children, they lose there
appeal once the real work starts.

This may be a Siberian species invasion year. The way to nail
down the Baikal Teal is not to spend hours trying to relocate
the bird in Kent Ponds, it's to show an occurrence spike (like
1974-75) by finding another one in Spokane or Portland away
from potential leaky aviaries around Kent.

--
Mike Patterson
Astoria, OR
celata at pacifier.com

If you want to end war and stuff, you've got to sing loud
- Arlo Guthrie