It's encouraging to see the outpouring of identification expertise on
Tweeters, but the ID on that bird was right in the original caption-a
Hapless Duck. I'm sticking with that one.



Marvin S. Hoekstra

Sammamish, WA

marvin dot hoekstra at verizon dot net







From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Kelly
McAllister
Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2008 7:09 AM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] dead duck



O.K., I'm convinced that the Bald Eagle on Lake Sammamish is carrying a
Western Grebe which won by both the number of diagnoses and the specific
characteristics visible in the two photos. Thanks, Larry Schwitters, for
referring to the picture in the National Geographic Guide of a Western Grebe
in flight. That's a good picture for matching up a number of
characteristics, like wing shape and color, that I hadn't looked at. Gary
Shugart also supplied an image from the Slater Museum wing photo collection
that was a nice match for the bird in both pictures. That wing photo
collection can be a valuable tool for identifying birds. I remember using it
once to identify a road-killed bird that was mostly wings and little else at
the time I found it.



Thanks, everyone, for contributing to this exercise.



Kelly McAllister

Olympia, Washington

----- Original Message -----

From: Kelly Cassidy <mailto:lostriver at completebbs.com>

To: tweeters at u.washington.edu

Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2008 5:41 AM

Subject: RE: [Tweeters] dead duck



My vote is for a grebe, too, on the basis of the legs trailing well behind
with no hint of a tail and the apparently short, stubby wings. The seeming
gray in the plumage doesn't look right, but maybe that's a trick of the
light.



Kelly



_____

From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Larry
Schwitters
Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2008 12:05 AM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] dead duck





Tweeters,



When the Issaquah paper came yesterday Leora and I both said "Western Grebe"
at the same time. For some reason the photo in the paper was more obvious
than the image on the computer, which still looks like a Western Grebe with
it's head laying over its back



Does not the second photo



http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/myseattlepix/photo.asp?photoID=1008602



show two very long and strange legs hanging down? These do not look like
duck legs to me. The National Geographic Field Guide has a drawing of a
flying Western Grebe that shows off it's long legs. It also lists it as 25
inches long.



Poor bird.



Larry Schwitters

Issaquah

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