On Mon, 30 Jan 1995, Grant Fjermedal wrote:

**Edited for brevity**

> I'm just becoming interested in observing birds, so don't know anything
> about them. Would very much appreciate help identifying some gorgeous
> birds I saw today at Green Lake in Seattle.
Might I suggest you purchase and carry a copy of Peterson's Western Birds
or one of the other field guides.

> About the size of a coot.
> Gorgeous black head and black breast.
> Gray back.
> White sides.
> A bluish-white bill.
Almost certainly a Scaup.

> ALSO: With the group was another bird, very much like these, only
> instead of a black mink head, it was a brown mink head, brown breast,
> mostly brown elsewhere except for a bright streak of angular white
> along each side.
Probably female Scaup.