Dear Tweeters,

Having read the recent post about a possible Barrow's
X Common Goldeneye hybrid, I thought I'd describe a
bird seen on January 14, 2006, off Thousand Trails
near LaConner (Skagit County).

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING DESCRIPTION MAY CONTAIN
FOUR-LETTER CODES, AS WELL AS WORDS WRITTEN ON A
COMPUTER THAT MAY HAVE BEEN USED TO PROCESS
FOUR-LETTER CODES.

I was certain it was a BAGO X COGO; although one of
our party was skeptical, most of us figured that's
what it was, since it displayed characteristics
intermediate between those of each species.

It was an adult male. The facial spot was intermediate
between round and crescent-shaped. I have never seen a
godeneye with a face-spot shaped like the one on this
bird. It certainly wasn't the "silver dollar" one sees
on the COGO, yet it did not have the dramatically
crescentic "swoosh" of a BAGO face-spot. The forehead
was steepish, but not steep as would be expected on a
BAGO. What little gloss that was evident on the head
was greenish, although the bird showed less green
gloss than the male COGO's that were swimming near it.
There were no BAGO's around for comparison,
unfortunately. The black marks that jutted into the
snow-white plumage of the bird's underside were very
different from those on every other male COGO around
(there were seven or eight of those to study). Also
distinctly different on this bird was the pattern of
the little white "checkers" contrasting against the
black on the folded wings; this was unlike the pattern
on all of the COGO drakes nearby.

I sketched the bird in my field notebook, but I will
not share the sketch; I do not wish David Sibley or
Kenn Kauffman to writhe in anguish when they see the
awesome spectacle of my art.

I, too, do not recall ever seeing a green gloss on a
BAGO, nor a purple on a COGO, although I suspect that
light could play tricks with this, as is seems to do
with the gloss on the heads of so many other ducks,
especially the drakes.

Good birding to all!


Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

near Lyman (Skagit County), Washington

garybletsch at yahoo.com


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