25 November 2024
Charity Kheshgi and Jon Woon joined me yesterday at Duck Hollow where we looked for birds under extremely overcast skies. Unfortunately the ducks were so far away and the light was so poor that we have no photos to show for it. Instead I’ve embedded look-alike photos from Macaulay Library.
Best birds were these very distant ducks.
1 Canvasback female (sample photo above): We pondered this bird for a long time because she was paired with a male ring-necked duck. Yes, she was a canvasback. We were witnessing future hybridization within the Aythya genus.
The Ring-necked Duck entry in Birds of the World includes eBird records with photos of hybrids between Ring-necked Ducks and Canvasback, Redhead, Tufted Duck, and Great and Lesser Scaup.
— Eastside Audubon Bird of the Month
1 Ring-necked duck, male. Easy to identify because of his head shape and white striped beak.
1 Hooded merganser, female. She kept her crest sleeked back even more than this.
12 Common mergansers flew by but were never as close to us as this group in good light on 9 November.
I’ve put our best ducks in boldface. See our checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S203488389.
Duck Hollow, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, US
Nov 24, 2024 8:30 AM – 10:00 AM
Protocol: Traveling, 1.2 mile(s)
22 species
Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) 55
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) 30
Canvasback (Aythya valisineria) 1 Female
Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris) 1 Male
Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus) 1
Common Merganser (Mergus merganser) 12
Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) 2
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) 1
Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) 1
Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) 3
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) 2
Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis) 2
Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) 4
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) 50
American Robin (Turdus migratorius) 125 Along the road
Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) 1
House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus) 10
American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) 3
Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) 12
White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) 4 This is probably a low count
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) 5
Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) 3
p.s. Here’s how overcast it was. I took this sky photo when I got home.
