[mou] Comment on EUWI, Hennepin Co.

[Jim Mattsson]

At 1:45pm today (Nov. 6) I viewed the Eurasian Wigeon at North Anderson Lakes. It was easy to pick out among the hundreds of other wigeon and Gadwall present due to the overcast gray sky and uniform light conditions. It was about 200 m distant and mostly resting. At this distance, the dark reddish head appeared uniformly colored, ie. there was no darker area behind the eye suggesting hybridization with American Wigeon. The dark area behind the eye shown in the Recently Seen photo by D. Cahlander is apparently an artifact of lighting condition causing a shadow in this region. I looked for traces of the creamy forehead stripe bleeding into the cheek area below the eye which often shows in hybrid EUWI and AMWI, but could see none, at least at this distance. I also looked for any sign of black bordering at the base of the bill (an AMWI characteristic), but again, at this distance could see none. Upper parts, flanks, tail and breast all appeared consistent with a pure Eurasian Wigeon. 

Now, regarding origin.......

Jim
Eagan