Subject: [Tweeters] Tufted Ducks and patterns of vagrancy
Date: Jan 2 18:16:05 2005
From: Mike Patterson - celata at pacifier.com


One should never discount the possibilty of escapes when
evaluating waterfowl records. One way to tell is by looking
for consistent patterns of vagrancy and Tufted Duck has
a long and well documented pattern (unlike Lesser White-
fronted Goose). The best of these can explain where the
birds are coming from and where they go.

Tufted Duck is regular in Alaska. It is possible to see
them in flocks there. There are quite literally 100's of
records for the West Coast from British Columbia to California
dating back to at least the 1950's. There is a fairly well
established window of occurance centered in late-December to
early-January and Tufted Ducks appear to have a fairly high
wintering site fidelity turning up year after year at the same
sewage ponds.

So, Tufted Ducks are more like Eurasian Wigeon than, say,
Baikal Teal. The probability that you're looking at a real
TUDU is pretty high. If, occasionally, an escapee gets
counted as wild, it's not as big a deal as would be for
something with a less well established record.

Oregon has most of its records committee records available
online (both accepted and rejected) allowing for evaluation
of vagrancy patterns by anyone, even those individuals
listed as "origin questionable".

Another place to look for patterns would be:
http://www.birdinfo.com/TuftedDuck_data.html

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

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