Posted by Jeanne Kaufman on January 01, 1970 at 00:00:00
Thank you for the high praise and your friendship, Trey! Funny thing about the Northern Pintail. Not being familiar with it, it took me an hour to look through my apps and bird guides to try to identify it. It was hanging out so closely with the Mottled Duck in my photos, that I wasn't sure it if was just some variation. When I posted my sighting on eBird, I noticed that Tom Auer had seen the bird a few days earlier. This gave me confidence that my id was correct. Still, I didn't realize it was anything other than a regular sighting. Perhaps Tom also didn't realize that this was a special sighting, and as you say, it didn't show up on any alert. Credit really goes to Tom! Sure wish I had seen the Blue-winged Teals and Dowitchers that he listed, and I think he was the person who spotted the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher also. Kudos to Tom!