OFFICIAL ENTRIES---3RD ANNUAL "GUESS THE DATE THE FIRST DIVE

[Paul26]

Here are the official entries in chronological order of predictions of appearance.

You guys pay attention to instructions like a bunch of Lance Corporals: for those who didn’t provide a species, I randomly selected one from the interwebs. Tough luck if we don’t often see a species from Australia or Africa here in Eastern NC.

My camera is ready. The winner is he who picks the date closest to the day I photograph the first diver I see with my own eyes on the White Oak.

Walnuts 4x4- 31 Oct, Australian Shelduck
OUTATIME- 1 Nov, Buffy
Eastbound- 1 Nov, Buffy
Trigger22- 2 Nov, Egyptian Goose
Paul 26- 3 Nov, Merg (which, now that I think about it, isn’t technically a duck. Or at least it doesn’t count against the daily limit). Also: see the photo. I anticipated ncbufflehead’s groundless accusation. Zoom in: I made my prediction on 13 Oct, thank you very much.
Bigh20- 4 Nov, Ringer
Hydemarsh- 6 Nov, African Pygmy-Goose
Dingbatter- 12 Nov, Flightless Steamer Duck (I guess it swam here??)

[ncbufflehead]

Paul 26- 3 Nov, Merg (which, now that I think about it, isn’t technically a duck. Or at least it doesn’t count against the daily limit). Also: see the photo. I anticipated ncbufflehead’s groundless accusation. Zoom in: I made my prediction on 13 Oct, thank you very much.

It was a joke.


BTW, I know of at least one diver being killed during the October season(not that it counts in your contest).

[Paul26]

But of course! My newspaper-like-they-do-on-TV-shows-with-kidnappers was my joke back!

More importantly: on 12 Oct I was gassing up the boat for the weekend and out on the marshes at Dudleys at dusk Saw 4 of what I am pretty sure were divers. They looked too big to be teal and did not look like the fat bread/corn fed mallards from EI that I often see in the area.

Wayyyyyyy to soon for this, but I like what I am seeing in the reports from my marker cities up the coast and on the Great Lakes. Hopefully this will not be a year we wait until Jan to see divers here in great numbers.

Largest amount of hickory nuts in the parking lot I have ever seen.....ankle-twisting nightmare. My Salter Pather co-worker says this is a good duck-omen: it means a really cold winter here ( which hopefully means a REALLY nasty winter north of us).

[ncbufflehead]

Paul, you seen a diver yet?

A lot of ruddies, a few bufflehead and ringnecks showing up in Dare and Currituck. I saw one flock of about 100 or so blackheads a few days ago and have seen some scattered smaller bunches.