Out-Of-Place Waterfowl

[Christopher Paddock]

Earlier this spring I saw what I'm convinced was either a Canvasback drake or a Redhead in a small pond down by the beach in Holyrood. Just yesterday I had a brief encounter (on the TCH near the Holyrood Access Road) with what was obviously a wood duck (it wasn't a Harlequin, I know the difference). I also saw a report of at least one wood duck in a pond in Bowring Park in St. John's recently.

 

Newfoundland is not usually part of the normal range for any of these species. Has anyone else spotted what they believe to be out-of-place waterfowl recently?

 

[Grant]

I've seen wood ducks in Quidi Vidi before.

 

Are you sure the red headed duck wasn't a female merganser?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_merganser

 

[Christopher Paddock]

My mistake, after speaking to a couple of other folks it seems that woodys do occasionally show up here. I was going by the range map given for the wood duck on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's website (excellent site for waterfowl/upland bird info), which lists Newfoundland as being well outside their normal range:

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wood_duck/lifehistory

 

As for the possible redhead/canny, I'm sure it wasn't a merganser (I'm very familiar with mergs - I avoid shooting them because I hate the taste).