Hi Tweets,

I spent nearly two hours on Birchfield Road east of Yakima this afternoon
trying to get photos of the Common Teal. It was sitting on the bank of the
ditch close to the road when I arrived but almost immediately flew to the
west away from the road. I photographed it as it rested on the grass beside
the ditch but it was quite a distance away. After a while it dropped into
the creek and fed for over an hour. I couldn't believe that a duck as small
as a teal could eat so much and for so long. I finally gave up and went home.

The best of the photos is on the BirdYak website:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BirdYak/

Click on "photos" on the left side of the screen. You have to be registered
with Yahoo to look at the photos, though.

As I was observing and photographing the Common Teal resting on the grass,
the pale gray barring on the sides as described in Sibley (he calls them
"vermiculations") was very visible but did not show up in the photos.

Denny
* * * * * * * * * * *
* Denny Granstrand *
* Yakima, WA *
* osprey at nwinfo.net *
* * * * * * * * * * *