Dear Tweeters,
A quick stop by Sorenson Pond (on Berry Rd. and marked as Tjossem Pond in Google Maps) this morning (11/11) yielded some nice waterfowl: one long-ish staying Western Grebe and a Common Loon, Common Goldeneyes, Canvasback, American Wigeon, Green-winged Teal, and a lone Horned Grebe. A good sized group (~50) Canada Geese with one or two Cackling Geese mixed in rounded out the bunch. Amongst the Green-winged Teal, there was single male that lacked a vertical white bar along the side of the breast. The bird was actively feeding and a horizontal white lower scapular bar was not obvious, though it had a slightly outlined look to the face pattern and a more "textured" gray pattern on the back and sides, different from the other male Green-winged Teal on the pond. Without seeing the obvious white lower scapular bar, it's tough to know whether this is a "pure" Common Teal, or a hybrid (or a Green-winged Teal in a very bizarre state of retarded molt out of eclipse plumage).

Cheers,
Walter Szeliga
Ellensburg, WA