Hi, Tweets, I was up at Green Lake today during midday, and saw a couple of
ducks I can't identify. (I'm a "permanent beginner," BTW.) There were two
of them, in with a small group of male and female mallards, at the first
pier thingy past the espresso stand at the parking lot near the community
center. Anyway, these were bigger than the mallards, but had mallard-type
bills, appeared to be totally black except for a patch of dark blue near
where a female mallard's would be, w/no white around it. Couldn't see
anything but black and navy on these birds, but their wings were folded and
I didn't see them dive or fly. Also, they carried their hind ends higher
out of the water than the mallards, and had bigger tails, I think w/o the
curling feathers. I can't find these birds in Kaufman or Sibley! Any
hints, perhaps some sort of hybrid??

TIA,

Mary Klein
Seattle
mailto:bassclef at aa.net