[mou] Cinnamon Teal, Lac Qui Parle Co.

[Chu, Philip]

At 10:30 this morning I bumped into a male Cinnamon Teal in Lac Qui Parle Co.  The location was along CR 7 about 0.15 mile south of CR 36; here there is water on both the east and west sides of the road, and the Cinnamon Teal was at the north edge of the water on the west side.

Accompanying the male Cinnamon was a female teal, and that female was plainer-faced than is typical for a female Blue-winged, with pale rather than dark lores, a postocular stripe that was indistinct instead of conspicuous, and a paler area at the bill-base that was dingy pale buff rather than whitish (so that the pale area appeared...well, less contrastingly pale, relative to the rest of the face).  The female in question also appeared a bit longer- and broader-billed than I expect for a female Blue-winged; regrettably, I didn't think to compare the female's bill size to that of a male Blue-winged that was briefly nearby.

The male Cinnamon and its female companion swam south, and then east toward CR 7, ending up to the south of my position in the vegetation along the shoulder of the road.  Once the teal disappeared into the vegetation I turned my attention to counting shorebirds, looking at the other ducks that were present, etc.; then, about 10 minutes later, with the teal having not yet reappeared, I decided to walk south along the shoulder of the road, thinking that by doing so I might "push" them back out into the open.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find them - meaning, I guess, that they flew off during my 10 minutes of looking at other stuff.

Phil Chu
Department of Biology
St. John's University
Collegeville, MN 56321