Hello, tweeters.

As the person who has spent the most time looking at and thinking about
the Plectrophenax bunting at Harrison Hot Springs in November, I want
to say that I agree entirely with Wayne Weber, who said that Dan
Gibson's word on its identity was probably of sufficient value that the
bird should be considered a hybrid between Snow and McKay's. I should
add that at no time did Jay Withgott or I, who discussed the bird at
length, call it a male. It was certainly an immature because of its
pointed rectrices. Perhaps it and the Iona Island female are pure
McKay's, but it sounds as if we may never be sure. When we learned that
the color of the third rectrix would be definitive, we were heartbroken
that we didn't flush the bird to try to get a flight photo.

Second, the purported Gadwall x Falcated Duck hybrid at the Kent ponds
does not look that much like a hybrid to me. Steve Mlodinow and I were
down there a few weeks ago, and there were several male Gadwalls at a
nearby pond that had head patterns approaching the bird shown by Keith
Brady's photos (http://home.earthlink.net/~jpaulios/STFL.html); not
quite as contrasty, though. The fact that this bird shows no indication
of sickle-shaped (falcate) tertials, like the Indian hybrid at
(http://www.delhibird.org/species/sp00464.htm) shows, and it has pale
spots on the bill, both point away from Falcated Duck genes to me. It
seems there is nothing other than an odd head pattern that has
generated that conclusion, and I suspect it's either an odd Gadwall or
possibly a hybrid with some other species, and I even wonder about a
Mallard in its ancestry. This would explain the hint of greenish on the
head, the yellow on the bill, the somewhat contrasty brownish breast,
and what looks as if it might be a whiter tail than is typical of
Gadwalls. None of these except the greenish is a character of Falcated.

If this is indeed not a hybrid Gadwall x Falcated Duck, then its
presence has no bearing on whether the Baikal Teal is an escaped bird
or a wild vagrant.

Happy birding,
Dennis
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Dennis Paulson & Netta Smith
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382