Ruddy Duck?

Kelly McAllister
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
Olympia, Washington
Reply to: mcallkrm at dfw.wa.gov

On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 Yewamahops at aol.com wrote:

> Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2004 14:56:22 EST
> From: Yewamahops at aol.com
> To: Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> Subject: EASY ID (ya right)
>
> As i was hurrying along the Padilla Bay Shoreling trail trying to
> catch up with my wife and our dog I came upon a single brown duck about the size
> of the American
> Coot we had just passed ,however it was quite different as follows,the ears
> and surrounding area ,really the whole side of the head except for the crown
> was a pretty snow white:the eyes seemed small possibly because of all that
> white.I viewed it with my scope and the bill looked ducklike(possibly green : my
> color perception is a little on the weak side)Overall it looked brown , kind of
> smudged.I thought it ought to be easy to identify when we got back to the
> truck.So here I am anybody got any ideas?
> We were on a mad dash to retrieve our camping trailer at Bayview State
> Park
> which we had to leave for a week because of the snow.Got to see the Gryfalcon
> at the West 90 on New Years Day and when we left yesterday on the 11th saw
> another
> Gyr from the parking lot at the Farmhouse Inn or maybe the same bird anyway
> quite impressive.
> patrick nelson jr. Eatonville,Wa(yewamahops at aol.com)
>