Ducks of Fort Lowell

Saturday’s waterfowl show was dominated, as always, by American Wigeon.

This handsome drake steaming out of the frame proves it: sometimes the commonest birds are among the most beautiful. We spent a fair bit of time looking at females–all Americans–with particular attention to the presence or absence of black at the base of the bill; lately, the lack of black there has been touted as a mark for Eurasian Wigeon, but we found several females, otherwise clearly American Wigeon, with no visible dark. (And the new Pyle, which I’d brought along to try out, confirms that the difference is not consistent.)

We’d selected Fort Lowell over the other ducky parks in Tucson because of the Hooded Mergansers, of course.

Of the three females sharing the pond with that snazzy drake, two had extensively yellow bills, one a blackish bill. Both yellow-billed birds had clear white shaft streaks on the longest tertial, making them adults (thanks, Peter Pyle!), while I was never sure whether I saw a streak on the dark-billed individual or not.

With these beauties on the pond, it might have seemed like slumming to even look at the gang of motley Mallards. There were a couple of wild-type birds, but nearly all were obviously escapees–or farm ducks dumped at the park on Easter Monday.

Understandably, these are confusing birds if you aren’t expecting them, and more than one park-goer stopped to ask what “that thing” was on the head of a crested Mallard.

I hope that my smile was forgiven when one of the questioners had a pug at the end of a leash….