Any luck with the Tufted Duck?
Bridgeport, CT
Wednesday 4 March 2020
51 °F
This afternoon I took the Metro-North to Bridgeport, Connecticut in hopes of finding a female Tufted Duck, a rare visitor from Europe which has been seen in the nearby “Captain’s Cove” in recent days. Upon seeing a report from noon today (well before I arrived, though), I was excited to see that the bird had been found today.
One challenge with birding in suburban and rural areas is the fact of navigating private property in order to view the birds. This was also a problem last time I birded hear in Connecticut when I tried to find that Pink-footed Goose. So, today, it resulted in a lot of backtracking through suburban streets in hopes of getting a decent view of the harbor. There were many classic suburban birds around the way like the NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD:
And RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD:
Soon, I found a dead-end road that ended at the harborside, so I parked myself there for a number of hours and scanned the waterfowl in the harbor countless times. 
There were AMERICAN BLACK DUCKS:
And too many Scaups to count (predominately GREATER with a few LESSER mixed in). The Tufted Duck, a very similar species, had also been reported to be hanging out with the Scaup. Another challenge, in addition to the fact that the Tufted Duck is extremely similar to the Scaup, is that so many of these ducks had their heads tucked in, sleeping away the afternoon. So, I had to spend what felt like eternity picking through every female duck checking whether she was, in fact, the Tufted. 
Close-up of a male GREATER:
GREAT BLUE HERON:
COMMON LOON:
Female RED-BREASTED MERGANSER:
PIED-BILLED GREBE:
Male BUFFLEHEAD:
Unfortunately, despite nearly three hours of extremely-thorough searching, I never managed to find the Tufted Duck, so I swore at the ducks and glumly plodded back to the train station. Particularly frustrating considering the fact that the bird was seen earlier in the day! Well, at least I have seen it before (in England).
Bird-of-the-day to the beautiful Greater Scaups seen today, with runner-up to a BELTED KINGFISHER, my first of the year, I saw from the train ride home.
Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1111 Species
