Lousy pics of the female Common Pochard
Aythya ferina photographed by Martin Reid at
Lake Worth, Tarrant County, Texas on November 05, 2003. A large
number of ducks arrived with an overnight Cold Front; lots of
Ruddy Ducks, Redheads, and Lesser Scaup, plus a couple of female
Canvabacks, and numerous dabblers. It was with a group of mostly
Redheads.
One of the two of West Coast records of Common Pochard away from
western Alaska was a male that returned for three winters (with
one-winter intervals of absence between visits) associating with
a mixed flock including Redheads at an inland lake. The small,
scattered Alaskan-breeding Redhead populations presumably winter
mostly in the western Coastal Plain, where they mix with Redheads
from the main Prairie population that cross the Rockies (see Bellrose:
Ducks, Geese and Swans of N. A., 3rd Ed. 1980.) In any
given year, 60 - 80% of the entire population of Redheads winters
along the southern Coastal Plain of Texas. A Common Pochard arriving
in western Alaska might team up with Alaskan Redheads - some of
which may annually join the Prairie population in Texas. Alternatively
such a Pochard might travel to the West Coast with the (presumed)
bulk of the Alaskan Redheads, but mix with Prairie birds there,
and follow them back across the Rockies for the summer, thence
to Texas in the winter. Thus, while on the face of it Common Pochard
does not look like a good vagrancy candidate for Texas, I feel
that the special circumstances relating to its carrier species
- Redhead - make Texas the most likely place for one to
be found east of the Rockies:
NOTE: there was no diving/feeding activity by any
birds - most of which were in "alert" posture, thus
the head shapes are typical and not distorted by pre-dive crown-flattening:
The odd-looking whitish-headed bird next to the Pochard is a female
Redhead - this plumage aberration is relatively common:
