Odd Ducks at DAR

We have been eagerly following the news of these two ducks along with you.  Here at Vermont State Parks understand that DAR is probably now the best viewing location and that there's not enough room to park at the gate. We have asked one of our maintenance staff to go up to DAR early to open the gates and plow out some spaces for birders to park. 

If you haven't heard the news Ron Payne went to the Lake Champlain Bridge, which crosses Lake Champlain between Chimney Point, VT and Crown Point, NY, for some New Year's Day birding. While there, he found a Glaucous Gull, White-winged Scoter, two Barrow's Goldeneyes, and a male Tufted Duck. After viewing Payne's photos, Jeremiah Trimble identified it instead as a Common Pochard, which like Tufted Duck, is a Code 3 species, though it is actually much more difficult to find in the ABA Area. Most sightings are from Alaska. There's only one previous record from the East, a bird in Quebec in the spring of 2008, and just three others from the Lower 48, all from California. Additionally, there's a record from Saskatchewan. Now viewers could search for the colorful head of the Common Pochard and be delighted in the handsomeness of the bird so incomprehensibly rare in our part of the world.

Happy Birding!!