First lifer of the new year, a Tufted Duck near Portland, ME this morning. Not great photos, but I did have the pleasure of being the first one to refind it today. It is the duck to the far left in both photos - whiter flanks and you can just barely see the tuft peeking out at the back of the head.




Jill

Benton, ME
Canon Digital Rebel XT
Canon EF70-300 F4-5.6 IS USM

Very nice. We had one a few years ago on the Columbia River here in WA. It was hard to refind it amongst literally hundreds of Greater and Lesser Scaup it was hanging with. It took me quite a few stops and many flocks of scaup to find it...but the extremely white sides really stand out and help with identification. It was a lifer for me too!

Jeff

Congratulations nice photos! I never heard of a tufted duck so I looked it up and it's a rare visitor from Europe

sarah merion station, Pennsylvania zone 6B

Yeah, I suppose I should have noted that it is a Eurasian vagrant! There have been fewer than five records in Maine (I think); the issue is whether or not the bird is an escapee. This one acts wild; has no bands; and has its back toes (apparently they are often removed on captive birds), so hopefully it will be accepted by the RBC. It has been very well documented with many people getting much better photos than mine (darned bird had to be as far away from the trail as it could get the day I was there...)

Now I'm doing my best to wish an Ivory Gull here...

Jill

Benton, ME
Canon Digital Rebel XT
Canon EF70-300 F4-5.6 IS USM

It is pretty much impossible to tell whether a particular Tufted Duck is an escape. These days committees seem a little more liberal than they used to be on birds that have shown a pattern of wide dispersal. The west has always had more Tufted Ducks than the east. Here in NJ they are usually among thousands a scaup. Finding the rare individual in giant scaup flock is a matter of brute force birding combined with more than a little luck. I saw mine through the passenger side window of my car, which used up a lot of stockpiled good fortune. However rare Tufted Duck is, it is still much easier than Ivory Gull. Some years ago several friends and I went to see the one in Portland. It was a very long drive filled with frequent stops - a Hawk-Owl invasion year.

A friend and I missed the Ivory Gull by the Tappan Zee Bridge in NY by a single day a few years back - the pack ice broke up overnight and it was gone. If another one shows up, I will drop everything and go! I am glad I did so for this duck - I don't think it has been reported again since Monday.

I know that it's tough to tell if a bird was a captive, barring really obvious signs of previous pinioning, banding, etc., but somehow, Tufted Duck just doesn't seem like it would be that common in collections. It's not the most spectacular bird. I could be wrong though, since I have no idea what motivates collectors of exotic birdlife!

Jill

Benton, ME
Canon Digital Rebel XT
Canon EF70-300 F4-5.6 IS USM

I'd take the bird in a New York minute. It is not as if it is a Manderin or a Black Swan or some other impossibility. I remember your Ivory Gull story and I'm sorry you struck out. You did the right thing on the Tufted Duck - if you want to chase something, do it right away, because most birds move on fairly quickly. You also might have a Ross' Gull in your future, a staggeringly beautiful white gull with a pink cast. They have traveled down here from the arctic so they can appear up you way. You've added a goose and a duck this fall and winter, and that is a pretty good haul.

Jill are you far from Prince Edward Island? I just got this e-mail about an Ivory gull at Prince Edward Island

http://birding.typepad.com/

sarah merion station, Pennsylvania zone 6B

It would be about 10 hours each way; tempting, but I would have a hard time being away that long... Thanks for the heads up!

Jill

Benton, ME
Canon Digital Rebel XT
Canon EF70-300 F4-5.6 IS USM

Congrats on you lifer! What a great duck!

DuckWatcher
No California -- Zone 9b
Olympus SP-560 UZ