Date: 3/30/25 8:56 am From: Ragupathy Kannan <0000013b0ad14faf-dmarc-request...> Subject: Re: Long-tailed Duck at Centerton - yes
Jacque kindly showed me the duck as well. See her lovely photos (a sharp contrast to my iPhone pics). I am so glad my wife chose this day to fly out of XNA. The juice was worth the squeeze, going all the way there from the River Valley. https://ebird.org/checklist/S221820652 Here are some fascinating tidbits on this duck from Birds of the World.
This midsize sea duck is a true arctic species, breeding in tundra and taiga regions around the globe, as far as 80°N. After breeding, it migrates to cold and temperate-water coasts of North America, western Greenland, eastern Asia, and the Great Lakes. Individuals dive for food, to impressive depths not reached by other sea ducks (more than 60 meters), and have a broad diet of animal prey, focusing on food items that are locally abundant. The Long-tailed Duck is hunted throughout its range, by native hunters in the North and by recreational hunters in southern Canada and the northern United States. Obtaining population size and trend estimates for this species have proven difficult, as it usually winters in flocks of various sizes, is widely distributed, and can be far offshore. Available data for the west coast of North America suggest that this species is declining drastically. ....(from https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/lotduc/cur/introduction?login)
KannanFt. Smith
On Sunday 30 March, 2025 at 03:39:41 am GMT-5, Joseph Neal <0000078cbd583d7c-dmarc-request...> wrote:
#yiv1848382095 P {margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;}Today, several of us made the trip to the state fish hatchery in Centerton hoping to see the LONG-TAILED DUCK first reported on March 27 (I think). Jacque Brown had seen it yesterday. She told me which pond it was using. Jay Walko was birding when we arrived at mid-day. He’d just seen the bird and mentioned it was diving a lot and not long on the surface. We first saw it at distance across the large pond, diving frequently. It soon began to swim in our direction and with less frequent dives. It was eventually right in front of us. We wound up with great views.I’ve seen quite a few Long-tailed Ducks in Arkansas over the years, but never better than today. Here’s our eBird submission with a few photos:https://ebird.org/checklist/S221701807. I think this is an immature male.I never ceased to be amazed at seeing in the middle of North America a creature from the Far North, many thousands of miles away. What a fabulous reality. And after the Long-tailed Duck, we had views of a couple of American Golden-Plovers, travelers of very, very long distances, and stopped here, among us, on their way north.
