ML281386831

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

A long, convoluted story associated with this one! Just glad I finally SAW it, as this is one of only a couple records for the county (and as of 2020, this was the LAST one to have been well seen and documented in the OC). Also of consideration is the difficulty in making a positively identification. Anyway, the following is what I entered in my notes on this date for this bird: "This is undoubtedly the SAME bird found on 8 December, 1984, by Jerry Tolman, which was the bird that Brian and I went and saw (and apparently also Steve Ganley and Arleta Patterson), and felt was a Common Goldeneye. This was contrary to what Jerry felt, as he had originally reported it as a Barrow's. Fortunately he had been there with Curt Johnson, who had taken photos; I encouraged them to send the photos to Guy and Jon Dunn, etc. Guy (and maybe others who saw the photos) got back to us saying "Barrow's all the way!!" Ugh!! We (especially Brian and I) had really blown it! And then unfortunately the bird seemed to just disappear (after 30 December, 1984, when Arleta was the last to see it). Kind of a sick feeling. But then on 22 January, 1985, Sylvia Gallagher (then Ranney I believe) went down on 22 January (after hearing from a VISITING birder who happened to stop at IRP, and report seeing a BAGO). When Sylvia made a visit to IRP (on 22 Jan.), she saw TWO female type goldeneyes, together, one BAGO and one COGO! After this the Barrows was seen by Brian Daniels on 23 January; so I went down on the morning of the 24th, and NO goldeneyes. 😖 On the 25th it was seen by Steve Ganley! Ugh again! So I went one more time, and FINALLY connected on the BAGO! When the bird's head is dried out (when they briefly stopped diving, which was rarely during the 45+ minutes we studied them (here with Tom Wurster apparently)), the head shape does appear different. Quite vertical forehead--almost looked forward slanting (see crude drawing)! One thing that struck me was the lower nape feathers, which were quite long (puffy), even laying down on back when tucked in, or looking like a crest almost when head was held up, or when preening. Common's lower nape was more rounded and less puffy towards the rear of head. The bill of the BAGO was slightly shorter (hard to tell, I felt, if not almost side-by-side with COGO), and yellow-orange, with a black nail. Eye of Barrow's slightly brighter yellow it seemed. Head color slightly darker brown. The COGO's head looked somewhat grayish-briwn in places (front of face and crown, mainly). Upperparts looked more uniformly gray on the Common, but more "patchy" in Barrow's, due to slightly paler feather edges on back feathers.

Technical information

Model

iPad mini 2

Lens

iPad mini 2 back camera 3.3mm f/2.4

ISO

800

Focal length

3.3 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/2.4

Shutter speed

1/15 sec

Dimensions

1643 pixels x 1290 pixels

Original file size

541.17 KB