Date: 4/27/25 8:02 pm From: Ted Floyd <tedfloyd73...> Subject: [cobirds] Thoughts on the Waneka Lake duck (& other thoughts, too; fancy that)
Hey, all.
A duck in the mallard superspecies complex has been present at Waneka Lake & environs, Boulder Co., for close to a month now. The mallard superspecies complex comprises the mallard, Mexican duck, mottled duck, American black duck, Hawaiian duck, and Laysan duck, plus other species found outside the ABA Area. And their many intergrades!
There have been some differences of opinion about the duck at and around Waneka Lake. Which is fine. Tricky birds are the ones from which we learn the most. When I first saw the Waneka Lake bird, I thought it was a mallard x Mexican duck intergrade. I'd been out of the country and wasn't aware that there had been discussion back-channel about the bird. In the past several days, though, I've come around to wondering why this bird isn't a mottled duck or, at least, a bird with mottled duck ancestry.
Here are a few pics from earlier this Sun. afternoon, Apr. 27, seriously de-rezzed for posting to Google Groups:
[image: duck 01.jpg] [image: duck 02.jpg] [image: duck 03.jpg] [image: duck 04.jpg] [image: duck 05.jpg] [image: duck 06.jpg] [image: duck 07.jpg] Here are some characters that I think indicate mottled duck, rather than Mexican duck, for the Waneka Lake duck:
* "school bus" yellow bill (not dusky yellow-green) * extensive black at base of bill, including gape spot * warmish tones overall, especially the contour feathers * pale throat with weak buffy tones (whence *fulvigula*, the specific epithet of mottled)
But I'm not sure about that, not at all. I got no dog in this fight. Honest. Whatever it is, it's a cool bird, and I thought I'd put my thoughts out there because, Why not? And, if you're wondering, I've eBirded it as " *Anas* sp." Talk about playing it safe. Incidentally, so-called "triple hybrids," birds with mallard, mottled duck, & Mexican duck ancestry, are not uncommon in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. I'm just saying.
. . . . .
Okay, in other news:
Lots of other stuff of late at the Waneka/Greenlee/Hecla complex. For example, a light-morph adult* broad-winged hawk* sailing over, due north, this Sun. afternoon. Perfect conditions: late April, warm, south winds; plus, we had just had "weather." (I've noticed anecdotally that Boulder broad-wings are best detected on the heels of spring storms.) Was anybody watching from Broadway Ave. westward in Boulder today? Because I bet there were more passing over out there.
Also a couple of FOY *northern house wrens* near the Greenlee feeders today. And *American avocets* doing the nasty at Greenlee marsh. Snapping turtles, *Chelydra serpentina*, too; indeed, they've been doing it essentially nonstop there for several days now.
Yesterday at nearby Prince Lake No. 2, a FOY *Brewer sparrow. *Also a *loggerhead shrike* festooning a barbed wire fence with moribund victims. Leatherman's ears perk up...
And back on Fri., Apr. 25, in the daylong drizzle at Waneka/Greenlee/Helca, a nice smattering of sandpipers* (Wilson snipe, Wilson phalarope, spotted sandpiper, solitary sandpiper, lesser yellowlegs, greater yellowlegs,* and *least sandpiper).* Also *osprey, American bushtit, red-breasted nuthatch, chipping sparrow, dark-eyed junco,* and various flavors of *yellow-rumped warbler. *A *spotted towhee* was giving a call consistent with that described in the literature for the *arcticus* subspecies. However, the literature is muddled in the matter...
Oh, one other thing! Today. This afternoon. On the north shore "beach" of Waneka Lake, a fine showing by twelve-spotted tiger beetles, *Cicindela duodecimguttata*. If you go looking for the Waneka duck, try for the tiger beetles. They're beautiful.
Ted Floyd Lafayette, Boulder Co.
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