Today (Saturday) we took the ferry over to Bremerton to visit some friends.
On the way over, during the slow part in the passage, my wife claimed to see
a bird which she was unable to identify.

I never laid eyes on it, so can't comment, but her description is, general
duckid shape, bufflehead size or a bit smaller, nearly all white with only a
little black, observed diving at least a couple of times.

Now, I know good and well that we don't get smew down here (so, what's the
four-letter abbreviation for smew? SMEW?), but I'm at a loss to figure out
what it could be. She's an experienced birder and would not confuse a
bufflehead, so I'm thinking maybe not a duckid but something else? An alcid?
Or some smallish grebe that's mostly white? But I can't think of anything.
Anyone have a suggestion?

And hey, wouldn't it be COOL to get a smew down here? Aside from in the zoo,
I mean?

-Josh Hayes, josh at blarg dot net