Yesterday afternoon at Matthews Beach I spotted a female Ruddy Duck. She
spent most of the time at the south end of the pilings, between the pilings
and the shore. She dove and preened for about half an hour, when I lost
track of her (the 300+ crows gathering in the shoreline trees made it hard to
concentrate!). The stiff, upright tail was unmistakable. It looked like
she would 'pump' it as she started her dive.

The 2 English Sheepdogs didn't help much, as they were attacking the
crows and the crows were retaliating. When the crows started divebombing
me, I knew it was time to stop counting buffleheads and get the heck
outta there! :)

Susan Collicott
camel at serv.net
Seattle, WA