Two points of potential interest about Tufted Ducks, in addition to the fact that the short-tufted male continues (as late as 3:30pm) close to the point at the Ithaca Yacht Club:
I did not see the Tufted Duck in the Ladoga area but I am told that on 22 February it was seen to have a normal long tuft. Did other observers see this? Does anybody have photos which might argue for this being the same bird having lost tuft feathers or for it being a different bird based on some other characteristics, such as bill markings? If you are interested in the species in its native climes, albeit not a totally natural situation, below is a link to a half-hour movie, 50 or more years old, from Sweden, which Stefhan Ohlström sent me. The movie is in black-and-white, which works fine for this species, and the narration, without subtitles, is in Swedish, but this also doesn't matter a whole lot if you don't listen Swedish, as the plot is pretty obvious. I will explain the title, "Viggen Viggo". You may have heard of the actor, Viggo Mortensen, who my wife Laurie tells me is an Upstate New Yorker of Danish heritage. "Viggo" is just a Scandinavian first name. But Vigg is the common Swedish name for _Aythya fuligula_, what we call Tufted Duck. The suffix "-en" is the Swedish way of indicating the article "the". So the title means, "Viggo the Tufted Duck," but of course it is more cute in Swedish. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YiJ0b_3H-k --Dave Nutter -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
