Bluebills

[h2ofwlr]

Just promoting your guide business is all.

You think I made that up on how to tell the drakes apart? Even 40+ years ago the duck id hand books mentioned the primary differences. And since you do not believe me, then go argue with Cornell Ornithology Lab.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/greater_scaup/id "head with greenish iridescence."

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Lesser_Scaup/id "head with purplish iridescence"


I'm pretty surprised neither of you knew this as I've considered both of you veteran hunters and not at all wet behind the ears. That being said, it then makes me wonder what % of the hunters have no idea how to ID in hand a lesser form a greater ...

[Nershi]

Well the baby blue bills I shot in tx had green hues on their head (in addition to purple blue).

Are you suggesting these were lesser greaters?

How often do you shoot greaters in mn al?

[Quack]

The "real way" to id lesser vs greater is the amount of white on the wing. Did I miss that or did the almighty Al and other experts fail to mention that?

As to the bluebills in TX, my guess is they were colored up juvies. I've been meaning to see if my Ducks Geese n Swans book can shed light on it, but haven't had time.

[Nershi]

I suppose they could be juvies. I assumed juvies couldn't get fully plummed out up by early Jan but then again I've never hunted down south. We did shoot one drake that was definitely a juvie that didn't have near the colors as the others and wasn't as big as the others. I suppose that one could have been a late hatch. It seems a little weird that we'd shoot all juvies but maybe we were hunting the young bachelor hangout.

[deet]

Just promoting your guide business is all.

You think I made that up on how to tell the drakes apart? Even 40+ years ago the duck id hand books mentioned the primary differences. And since you do not believe me, then go argue with Cornell Ornithology Lab.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/greater_scaup/id "head with greenish iridescence."

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Lesser_Scaup/id "head with purplish iridescence"


I'm pretty surprised neither of you knew this as I've considered both of you veteran hunters and not at all wet behind the ears. That being said, it then makes me wonder what % of the hunters have no idea how to ID in hand a lesser form a greater ...

I'm surprised that with all the hunting experience you allege to have, you haven't noticed multiple colors present on the head of every mature drake bluebill. It makes me wonder how much of your "knowledge" is merely regurgitated from readings of Cornell Ornithology Lab publications, vs. learned through experience.

[Nershi]

I'm surprised that with all the hunting experience you allege to have, you haven't noticed multiple colors present on the head of every mature drake bluebill. It makes me wonder how much of your "knowledge" is merely regurgitated from readings of Cornell Ornithology Lab publications, vs. learned through experience.

Yea I've wondered that about Al many times.

Gauranteed he spends more time reading about waterfowl than he does pursuing fowl in the field each year. Nothing beats experience.

[h2ofwlr]

FOLFMAO! Must be a bunch of Germans here, as you can tell them, but can not tell them much!

[Mallard_maniac]

FOLFMAO!

????

social media acronyms/abbreviations are getting out of hand.... are some of those letters even mixed up?

[Nershi]

FOLFMAO!

????

social media acronyms/abbreviations are getting out of hand.... are some of those letters even mixed up?

That's the abbreviation Al uses when he realizes he is wrong and has nothing else worth saying. Not sure what it stands for.

[h2ofwlr]

Sigh...

dyslexia reared its ugly head again...