Subject: [Tweeters] FW: Baikal Teal in Whatcom County
Date: Mar 20 10:55:32 2009
From: Wayne Weber - contopus at telus.net


Tweeters and BC Birders,



With Paul Woodcock's permission, I am forwarding the complete message about
the BAIKAL TEAL sighting on March 17 near Ferndale in Whatcom County. The
exact location is on the south side of Mountain View Road west of Ferndale,
about a mile east of Lake Terrell Road. This location has been frequented by
large numbers of dabbling ducks and geese for the last several weeks; some
of them may commute between there and Lake Terrell itself.



I spoke to Paul this morning, and he could not refind the bird on Wednesday
and has not heard of other sightings. However, it seems likely that the bird
is still in the area.



Paul is completing an online WOS report form for the sighting, and the photo
he obtained, although in very poor light, should be sufficient
documentation.



Here's hoping that other birders will be able to find the Baikal Teal!



Wayne C. Weber

Delta, BC

contopus at telus.net







From: Paul and Nadia Woodcock <paulwoodcock at comcast.net>

Date: March 19, 2009 1:18:58 AM PDT

To: whatcombirds at lists.wwu.edu

Subject: Baikal Teal



My brother and his wife and two friends are visiting from Wisconsin to do
some birding and I am attempting to show them as many of our local
specialties as I can in three days. On the evening of our first day,
Tuesday, March 17, we stopped along Mountain View Road west of Ferndale to
see if I could show them some Eurasian Wigeon in a huge flock (800 to 1000
birds?) of mostly American Wigeon. I easily found a Eurasian and after the
four of them had looks through my scope I decided to scan the flock to see
how many Eurasians were present. I found myself looking at the head of a
male BAIKAL TEAL in profile. Having looked at that bird in books, I knew
immediately what it was though I never expected to find one; it is a face
one never forgets, especially when lit by the setting sun. Our Wisconsin
crew called it the "Packer bird" because it wears the Green Bay green and
gold proudly on its face.

We watched the Baikal Teal from about 6:20 PM to a little after 7:00 and
tried to take pictures of it through the scope with little success. We
started to get some results about the time the light was failing. One poor
image is at most good enough to prove the bird was there. Even though there
were three Green-winged Teal in the flock The Baikal seemed to be completely
at home among the wigeon. We could see no bands and it acted like a wild
bird.

We returned to the field, which is south of Mountain View immediately east
of Lake Terrell Road, both morning and evening on Wednesday and could not
relocate the Baikal. Though a few Pintail and Mallards had joined the
flock, the number of wigeon were about half of those present on Tuesday.
Hopefully this rare bird is still somewhere in the area and will show up
again, maybe on Lake Terrell.

Sorry for the slow report but these are busy days.

Paul Woodcock