Oi, check out Mark’s photos (link below)…….. =)

On the home front, we’ve had a Black-chinned Hummingbird slamming into an eBird filter all afternoon, and I’m feeling it’s little headache from that situation.
and Screech-owl is talking……
Larry, W Boise

From: texbirds-bounce@freelists.org [mailto:texbirds-bounce@freelists.org] On Behalf Of Mark Lockwood
Sent: Monday, October 01, 2018 5:36 AM
To: TexBirds (texbirds@freelists.org)
Subject: [texbirds] melanistic Ruddy Duck – Balmorhea Lake (29 September 2018)

I visited Balmorhea Lake, Reeves Co., on Saturday afternoon (29 September) and found a virtually solid black male Ruddy Duck. Melanism in Ruddy Ducks is known and at least two birds like this individual have been reported, one from Utah in 1947 and one in Arizona in 2017. This duck was the biggest highlight as there was not a lot on the lake other than Clark’s and Western Grebes. The few other highlights included:

American Avocet – 13

Semipalmated Plover – 2

Long-billed Curlew – 11

Sanderling – 1

I have place two images of the Ruddy Duck along with photos of the other above mentioned birds on my Flickr page:

Mark

Mark Lockwood

402 E. Harriet Ave.

Alpine, Texas 79830