I will take a break from my Oaxaca pictures. (many more coming!)
This morning I was at Santee Lakes, and noticed a duck unlike the others. As I am now taking a class in waterfowl identification, I recognized it as one of the hybrids we had studied just earlier in the week.
This is a cross between a Mallard and a Wigeon. Audubon actually thought this was a separate, but rare species, and named it Brewer's Duck, after his friend the ornithologist Thomas Mayo Brewer (1814-1880). Later (I'm not sure when), it was determined that it was not a separate species, but a hybrid.
It is not too uncommon, as a similar duck has been seen recently in Orange County, and this particular duck (probably) was photographed at Santee Lakes in November of 2013 by this excellent photographer.
