Subject: [Tweeters] What kind of Wigeon?
Date: Jan 10 08:33:41 2007
From: Jack Walsh - jack at jwalshpr.com


Yesterday at about 1:30 p.m. in the Puyallup Valley, I saw some type of
Wigeon that I was unable to identify. It was in a pond just to the
south-east of the intersection of River Road and Pioneer Way, near Tacoma.
It had a dark rufous head like a Eurasian Wigeon, but it did not have a
buffy forehead. The entire head was uniform in color. The forward part of
the body was also a very reddish brown, but not as much so as the head. The
tail-end was very similar to that of a female Eurasian or American Wigeon. I
don't know if it was a variant coloring of a Eurasian Wigeon or a
Eurasian/American Hybrid. I searched the Web for photos and did find one
that seems to be a very close depiction of it:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://staff.csc.fi/~ignatius/photos/
nature/2005-Fall/slides/2005-10-09_IMG_6400x-6531.jpg
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In this photo it appears that the forehead may be buffy, but from the angle
of the photograph it is not possible to know for sure. If the Wigeon in the
photo does not have a buffy forehead, it is a dead ringer of what I saw. The
photo caption identifies it as Anas Penelope (Eurasian Wigeon) but all the
field guides I've seen and from other photos on the Internet, it seems that
the male Eurasian Wigeon normally has a gray body. The field guides and
other photos indicate that hybrids tend to have a little more brown in the
body, but not the extensive brown or the lack of head markings that I saw.
The head of the specimen I saw definitely was uniform in color. Before I saw
it through binoculars, I thought it could be a Cinnamon Teal, but on closer
inspection it definitely had a typical small, gray "Wigeon" bill-not even
remotely like a teal. It also had the typical Wigeon body type. As I'm
writing this the question just hit me: do Cinnamon Teal and American Wigeon
hybridize?



There were no other Wigeon of any kind in the pond. There were about 30
Hooded Mergansers, a dozen Bufflehead, a pair of Mallards, two pairs of
Ring-necked Ducks and at least one Gadwall.



I'd appreciate any insights. If I have the opportunity I will try going by
today to see if it is still there.



Jack Walsh

Federal Way, WA

jack at jwalshpr.com