Hi tweets,

I visited the Golden Gardens Pond this morning, and in addition to numerous*
MALLARDS and AMERICAN WIGEONS, there were 4 male EURASIAN WIGEONS, maybe
females too, but conditions were so crowded it's hard to tell.

There was a Wigeon I think may have been a hybrid, it had a cinnamon head
with the green eye stripe on the side of the head and a beige-white crown.
There was a Green-winged Teal there a few weeks ago, and this was definitely
not a teal, the white crown and general wigeon look gave it away.. The was
also a M-F pair of BUFFLEHEADS diving in the pond. The pond is shallow and
only 3 to 4 years old I'm surprised diving ducks can find anything to eat,

*This pond seems really overcrowded, sometimes it seems like there are one
or more Mallard or Wigeon for every square foot of pond surface, plus gulls,
geese, crows, pigeons rats, mice and an occasional muscrat. A couple came up
when I was there and dropped a cup or two of cracked corn on the edge of the
pond where I was standing, in seconds I was surrounded by mallards and a few
female wigeons eating like crazy, the couple didn't even stay to watch the
ducks eat, but I had to watch my step, the mallards were so thick...

Cliff Drake
ardea at uswest.net
soon to change to ardea at qwest.net
Seattle, WA