Winter on Prospect Lake is enjoying a good start with LESSER SCAUP (LESC). In the third time for this species in this budding season , 3 LESC drakes were reported by Adam Welz mid afternoon; after Adam's text, I sauntered outside to the park and found the three scaup in the Lake middle , those scaup quite illuminated by the setting sun. Next to them, a mixed pair of HOODED MERGANSERS and one RUDDY DUCK added some appreciation .
RING-NECKED DUCKs, only 4 I saw, were distant, in the Peninsula cove and south lakeside. A lone PIED-BILLED GREBE is all that's left from December's flock.
LESC profile http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/lesser_scaup/id/ac
Prospect Park, Kings, US-NY
Feb 3, 2012 4:00 PM - 4:20 PM
Protocol: Stationary
13 species (+1 other taxa)
Canada Goose X
Mute Swan X
American Black Duck 2
American Black Duck x Mallard (hybrid) 1
Mallard X
Northern Shoveler 35
Ring-necked Duck 4
Lesser Scaup 3 drakes
Hooded Merganser 2
Ruddy Duck 11
Pied-billed Grebe 1
American Coot X
Ring-billed Gull X
Herring Gull X
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org/)
Best way by the way in differentiating the two scaup species is looking at the head shape or profile. Greater's is round, Lesser's is less round, peaky..
here's more help with a terrific photo species head comparison..you can see the head shape difference
http://www.utahbirds.org/featarts/Scaup.htm
http://birding.about.com/od/identifyingbirds/a/scaupidentification.htm
