Green-winged Teal

Royal Botanical Gardens. Hendrie Valley, Burlington. ON. October 8 2022. Two days ago it was warm, then a cold front swept through and today it was blustery, almost wintery. Such an upset gets birds moving, many birders relish such cool days with north-westerly winds to stir things up.

I completed one of my transects this morning, the valley was beautiful in its fall colour, all shades of oranges yellows and reds, in sweeps and swatches, entangled or even swirling loose in the gusts.

The transect produced about thirty species and I was sometimes challenged to make an identification: A single Rusty Blackbird was a struggle for a long time, it was silhouetted high on a bare limb and it was only by analysing photos later that I able to draw a conclusion. A young Chipping Sparrow had me searching my mental files for a match, it was showing key field marks, pink bill, a clear breast yet, perhaps because the habitat was wrong, I didn’t clue in for a while. My Birds of the Day, three Green-winged Teal, had me puzzled too.

From a large footbridge spanning the wide creek that meanders this valley, I gazed down at Mallards, about twenty of them, males and females. Behind the Mallards and making their way upstream, towards where I stood, were the teal, different in size and behaviour, and more richly patterned than the Mallards, though not distinctively so. When a male Green-winged Teal is in his nine-months-of-the-year plumage, he looks like this. Unmistakeable.

But these were not males at their handsomest, they may be females, young males or males in eclipse plumage (relatively drab late summer, early fall when they lose their showy breeding finery.). At first glance they looked like female Mallards. Here they are, including a female Mallard to make my point.

I took several photos, mentally reviewed the options, discarding Blue-winged Teal, Gadwall, wigeon, shoveler and pintail for one good reason or another. Left with Green-winged Teal, I remembered that they are small, much smaller than a Mallard and that there’s quite a few around right now. Looking at my photos I noted a few glimpses of the iridescent green speculum, from which they get the name.

I always like to see Green-winged Teal, apart from their beauty they have a daintiness that appeals. Speaking to another birder later, she said her duck-hunter father always brought home a couple of Greenwings for the kids, being smaller he thought them more appropriate. She hated finding lead shot in her dinner. Kids’ meals have changed.