[Ontbirds] Not a Fulvous Whistling-Duck but what? St-Albert sewage lagoons, East of Ottawa

[Langis Sirois]

   Good morning all.

   This  is  a  follow-up  to  the  2 messages on this subjet that I sent
   Thursday morning.

   It is 11:00AM Saturday May 3rd.

   Thanks  to  Bernie  Ladouceur  and  Jan Slumkoski, the bird that I saw
   Wednesday  evening and reported on Thursday morning, has been refound;
   that  is  the  good  news,  the  bad  news is that it is not a Fulvous
   Whistling-Duck.

   Bernie  called  me  earlier  this  morning.   He is not able to send a
   message at this time, so we agreed that I would send one.

   Bernie  and Jan found the bird last night at the St-Albert lagoons; it
   was with a male Mallard to which it seemed to be attached; the 2 birds
   were at  the lagoon  that is further away from the entrance than the 5
   lagoons  that  one can see when standing in the middle of those 5; the
   two additional lagoons are not visible from that area.

   They were  able  to  study the bird from about 100 meters while it was
   sitting  on  the  water  at  the edge of the lagoon and at close range
   while  it  was  in  flight.  Except for a somewhat whitish spot on the
   front  of  the  neck,  and  a  dark  bill,  this  bird  looked  almost
   uniformly very  twany  to them; it showed no specular; it was somewhat
   smaller  than  the male mallard it was associating with; its shape and
   the  absence  of markings on the back, wings and rump, allowed them to
   conclude  that  it was not a Fulvous Whistling-Duck.  Bernie concludes
   that  the  bird  is  a puddle duck, but he and Jan could not determine
   what it was; Bernie does not think it is an hybrid.

   I wished I could have done a better job when I saw that bird, but as I
   explained,  the weather conditions were miserable and I could only see
   parts  of the bird, from far away.  Apologies to anyone who might have
   travelled long distance to try to see it.

   Good birding to all.

   Langis Sirois, Ottawa
   For directions, please refer to Larry Neily's excellent website:
   [1]http://ca.geocities.com/larry.neily@rogers.com/sewage6.htm

References

   1. http://ca.geocities.com/larry.neily@rogers.com/sewage6.htm