Long-tailed Duck

A Long-tailed Duck (or two) have been popping up on eBird during November. Erika and I made dozens unsuccessful forays in search of the duck. On 22 November 2020 we received yet another rare bird alert from eBird. (You can set the alert parameters up in the app.) Two Long-tailed Ducks were seen in Budd Bay in the previous 90 minutes about a mile from our home. Erika sent me out alone, and, for once, I immediately found at least one of the ducks. I took the lower photo first and then discovered a Long-tailed Duck at even closer quarters. You can decide if they are the same bird (I am not sure). 

“Long-tailed Duck” is a European name for a species that breeds in the northern taiga around the world. Americans used to call this duck “Oldsquaw.” “Squaw,” historically, is often a pejorative word, and ornithologists changed the name to conform to its Old World appellation.  In North America, Long-tailed Ducks winter mainly along the coasts south to the Chesapeake Bay and Puget Sound. Others winter in the Great Lakes. Actually the species winters along all our coasts, and in Mexico's Gulf of California. Straddlers can be found across all of the United States. The population size is hard to estimate—they often winter far off shore. Data suggest, however, that despite hunting pressure and environmental pollution, populations in eastern North America are stabile, while west coast numbers are drastically declining (Robertson and Savard 2020). In any event, this encounter is only the fourth of my birding career. I first saw the species in Maryland sixty years ago. I have since listed it once in South Dakota and once in Wisconsin.