Buffleheads = Sea Ducks

[Mikey The Cat]

Topic came up in conversation recently -

Washington state lists buffleheads (and common mergansers, hooded mergansers, and other species) as Sea Ducks, and as such, require the hunter to obtain, possess, complete, and return to the WDFW a "Sea Duck Harvest Record" at the end of each season -

I (personally) shoot none of the above, so it's a moot point for me. But I know that buffleheads catch hell in lots of location, e.g. Puget Island and Chinook, to name just two, and was just curious how many hunters, even avid duck hunters, knew of the bufflehead's sea duck status -

And...discuss -

[boneaddict]

I wouldn’t have.   Not sure when this became a thing.  They are as common as dust here in the east.  Hooded merganser with the exception to “common”, though I just had a great photo shoot with several.

[ASHQUACK]

Wow, news to me. And I was an avid sea duck hunter. I've hunted sea ducks since the early 2000's. I wonder when they added those to the card.

[Stein]

I'm not sure that's true.  Page 23 lists them as a duck, sea ducks start on page 24.  Page 26 lists sea ducks as scoters, long-tailed duck, goldeneyes.

Immediately after taking a band-tailed pigeon, brant, sea duck (scoters, long-tailed duck, goldeneyes)
in western Washington, snow goose (Goose Management Area 1) or any goose in Goose Management
Area 2 — Coast & Inland into possession, you must fill out the required harvest record card information
in ink within the designated spaces provided.

Here's the WAC 220-416-060:

Hunters must physically possess a special 2023-2024 paper or electronic hunting authorization and harvest record card for sea ducks when hunting scoter, long-tailed duck, and goldeneye in Western Washington.

[Mikey The Cat]

Just saw a presentation from Kyle Spragens in which buffleheads are listed as sea ducks. The classification was to me, I'll admit, a surprise; same with the mergansers, especially the hooded merganser. I have a call in now to confirm, and will post a retraction if said backtracking is deemed necessary

Just an FYI sort of thing, I reckon -

[ASHQUACK]

According to the eregs page, the only ducks listed are still the 3 scoter species, goldeneye, Longtail and Harliquen. Which is the way it has been forever.

[ducks4days]

Just saw a presentation from Kyle Spragens in which buffleheads are listed as sea ducks. The classification was to me, I'll admit, a surprise; same with the mergansers, especially the hooded merganser. I have a call in now to confirm, and will post a retraction if said backtracking is deemed necessary

Just an FYI sort of thing, I reckon -

Spragens is...... an interesting person. If it isnt in the regs published by WDFW, it means as much as anybody else's opinion.

Taxonomically, they are classified under Mergini, which includes cavity nesting ducks such as bufflehead and mergansers, as well as true sea ducks such as scoter, harlequin, longtail, etc.. Biology can get weird sometimes. Management-wise, it doesnt make sense to classify birds who will never in their lives see salt water as sea ducks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mergini

[Mikey The Cat]

Retraction -

So, it seems that while bufflehead and mergansers are (technically) sea ducks, the WDFW doesn't require a harvest record card for them (specifically) as there's not as much concern (for those) in terms of harvest pressure or population status -

No card needed for bufflehead or mergansers -

My mistake. I learn something new every day - Mikey The Cat

[follow maggie]

I can’t see why they’d classify buffleheads as sea ducks. I saw a lot of them in my area this year. North Dakota is a long ways from the sea.

[metlhead]

Sea ducks can be found many places. Lots of scoter and longtail come through the midwest.

[h2ofowlr]

Retraction -

So, it seems that while bufflehead and mergansers are (technically) sea ducks, the WDFW doesn't require a harvest record card for them (specifically) as there's not as much concern (for those) in terms of harvest pressure or population status -

No card needed for bufflehead or mergansers -

My mistake. I learn something new every day - Mikey The Cat

Good deal.  I have a buddy that would wear out a pen if they had to be marked.  He is a bufflehead specialist.