I've seen it too! It tends to hang out by the old salmon pens near Marathon
Park mostly with the geese.

Rosalind Philips
Olympia, WA
rosalind at starlingconsulting.com


-----Original Message-----
From: TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu
[mailto:TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu]On Behalf Of NJPharris at aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 1999 8:37 AM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: Unusual duck


I was wondering if you guys could help me out ID'ing an unusual duck I saw a
while ago.

It was down at Capitol Lake in Olympia, generally in association with
mallards. It looked like a large mallard, only darker. Its back and sides
were almost mahogany-colored, and mottled. The outer tail feathers, where a
mallard would be white, were kind of dull gray. The bill and feet were dark
as well; they looked orange with a blackish overlay. The bill was of typical
mallard construction, not like a shoveler.

And this was the main character distinguishing it from the mallards: where
a
male mallard would have a thin white ring around the base of the neck, this
duck had a broad white bib over much of the upper breast. It did not appear
to extend around the back of the neck.

So what was this thing? Did anyone else in the Olympia area see it? Is it
just some growth stage of a mallard that I'm unfamiliar with? Domestic/wild
hybrid? Some other kind of mallard hybrid?

Thanks,
Nick Pharris
Olympia, WA