Not More Birds.....A Duck by Any Other Name

The weather cleared for a bit and I went for my walk this afternoon. There were huge backhoes cleaning up the sides of the pond and that seemed to scare most of the wildlife away as that side of the pond had nothing where there are usually all sorts of birds. I figured this would be my first day of not spotting a new bird but much to my surprise, I did spot a new one - a Greater Scaup. I have seen a lot of the Lesser Scaups and supposedly they travel together. There were no Lesser Scaups there today but there were several of the Greaters. They can best be diffentiated according to Stokes by the fact that the Lesser Scaups have a peak in their head and a smaller bill while the Greater Scaups have a larger bill and no peak. I looked at my other pictures and they certainly do look different to me.
The Northern Shovelers were hanging around a little closer to one side than before so I managed to get a few pictures showing their greenish heads and even their orange feet in a couple of shots.

These are both males. The females look a lot like the female mallards.

Okay, enough birds! They are one of my inspirations but here is another of the many, many quilt tops I have made during this vacation. I will certainly be busy putting these tops together into quilts when I get home. That should be fast though and I LOVE to sew on the binding and watch my favorite British mystery series -- Midsomer Murders!! I should have two sets to view by the time I get home! My only dvd collection as I have all seasons of this BBC show -- it is my favorite cozy!