Female Goldeneyes

[Harrier]

Hi everyone,
I took my class up to Lindeman Lake on Tuesday, and while we were there I noticed two female goldeneyes diving in the lake. I assumed that they were commons, but really only because I've observed commons hundreds (thousands?) of times before and I've ID'ed Barrow's far fewer times over the years. I was just checking the seasonal checklist though and I noticed that commons generally don't arrive in our region until mid to late October, but small populations of Barrow's are present all year. I recall reports of summer Barrow's from Lightning Lake, which would be a very similar habitat to Lindeman, so can I be reasonably sure (reasonable enough to include the species in the September challenge) that these were Barrow's?
Thanks for the help,
Christian

[Gord]

Christian, funny you mentioned this as I had a similar experience on Harrison Lake from the breakwater last week. I studied it through my scope quite closely and was comfortable to ID this one as a Common Goldeneye male in molt. But I had the same dilemma as you did with your sighting given the time of year thus the long, agonizing stare at the bird. My apologies for sharing this sighting a bit late.

Your thoughts on habitat and so forth is valid plus when you look at the Chilliwack Lake area it really is not that terribly far from the Skagit and Manning area. It is not impossible at all that the odd nest can be found in the lakes around Chilliwack Lake. Personally, given the chance that Common's can come through early and that one was even seen about a week before you saw yours would make me hesitate to give them a name all things considered.

Hope your hike with the kids went well! Beautiful hike there.