A couple of male Ring-necked Ducks were back on Swan Lake today utilizing the bit of water around the edge. I couldn’t tell for sure where they were, but much of the apparently open water around the lake had ice underneath it still frozen into the mud and/or vegetation. There were also quite a few gulls, mostly Glaucous-winged Gulls, but with quite a few apparent Thayer’s as well. I saw one I’m thinking was a hybrid – it seemed to have a fairly bulky body, black wing-tips, very pale yellow eyes, and a pinkish orbital ring.
It rained hard for a while last night, but held off for most of the day over town. There were even some sunny breaks. The puffy look to the clouds with showery sort of precipitation made me think of what people like to call “herring weather”, though it wasn’t quite there.
