We, myself, Warren Harrington and Mindi & Stephen Ansley, the boat owners, took an 18’ Whaler boat out from Barbour Island River Marina (Gould’s Landing) immediately south of Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge landing and eight miles east of Rte. 17 (in South Newport, GA) on Harris Neck Rd. We traveled south along the Barbour Island River 1.5 miles. Buffleheads & Hooded Mergansers were present in the river. The a small duck flew north by the boat in the direction of the dock.

The first thing I noted was the lack of any white in the wings and white spots on head. Stephen turned the boat around and we found the duck in the middle of the river floating next to a white topped crab trap buoy. It appeared to have an attraction to the floating buoy, maybe, it looked like a rock and I always see Harlequins on the rocky coast of Massachusetts. An in-law of the Ansley’s coming from the dock passed close to the bird, but it stayed with the float. When the 2nd boat left, we approached the bird and I photographed it with my 12x digital camera.

The white crescent in front of the eye was visible. It appeared to be a young or subadult male harlequin duck coming into adult plumage. I took 15 photos of the bird on the water & 10 more of it flying away south down the river. We compared the photos with the Sibley Guide, confirming the sighting for the Ansleys, a lifer for them.

The time of the photos was 8:28 - 8:31 AM 12-19-08. The location was 31 deg 36.116’ N (31.6 deg) by 81 deg 15.572’ W (81.26 deg W). We continued on for the day’s census taking, some 50 miles by water. On returning to the dock, up from the water popped a small dark winged duck with white in the head. Stephen stated “This is the exact spot where we was the bird”. This was 9 hours later. It was then after 5 PM & getting dark. We took one try at finding it. With no luck, we return to dock.

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