In many duck species, the male:

does not look like the female:

This morning, we saw this duck:

At first glance I thought of female scaup because of the white between the eye and the bill:

Body colours were not exact so I then considered female American wigeon:

No white near the bill.

Could it be a female Redhead? They have a round head, a general brownish colour and some pale colour around the base of the bill:

No because Redheads have a black tip to a bluish bill. Today’s duck is a female Lesser Scaup.

Other birds:

Species list: red-necked grebe, great blue heron, double-crested cormorant, mute swan, Canada goose, mallard, gadwall, redhead, American black duck, bufflehead, American wigeon, long-tailed duck, red-breasted merganser, hooded merganser, American coot, ring-billed gull, rock pigeon, downy woodpecker, black-capped chickadee, European starling, house sparrow, northern cardinal, dark-eyed junco, white-throated sparrow, song sparrow.  (25 species)

Park views:

Today’s group:

Thanks to Heather Pantrey for these photos of a Common Redpoll which she took at Col Sam Smith Park recently:

NATURE POETRY

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.      – Robert Frost (1874–1963)

Miles Hearn