Hi Tweets,

Took my binocs with me to work today, and at lunch I "birded" the
adjacent pond. Here's what I sighted....

CANADA GEESE, too many
MALLARDS
COOTS
BUFFLEHEADS
HOODED MERGANSERS
A PAIR OF REDWING BLACKBIRDS
Bird of Prey soaring over the Flight Safety Boeing building. Possibly an
immature Bald Eagle

A possible HOUSE WREN? This was a very round bird with grey and brown
speckles on its breast and faint grey and brown stripes on back and
wings. Tail was quite perky and tilted upwards. The bird was flitting
around the grasses and cattails and right on the edge of the pond.

Two pairs of GADWALL
About eight pairs of NORTHERN SHOVELERS
Several pairs of AMERICAN GREEN WING TEALS
A possible CINNAMON TEAL (duck was very red over most of body)

And a VERY LARGE AND UGLY UNKNOWN DUCK

This duck looked like a large female scaup, but way too big to be a scaup.
It had a dark bluish-greenish greyish bill, a dark head with a white line
at the base of its bill, light grey breast, and darkish back. It's eyes
seemed bright. It's size and posture suggested a barnyard duck.

This duck was in the company of mallards, and a"blond" mallard hybrid.
The "blond" looked like a light female mallard.

Any idea what this ugly duck was? Do domestics mate with wild ducks
other than mallards?

LYDIA,
Going "quakers" in Kent

Lydia,
With a broken


Lydia Gaebe In Kent, WA
lydia at wizards.net
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