And no hunters. Good thing, too.

A couple of days ago I saw what looked like four mallards: one male and three females, which would be strange for mallards. Then I decided one of the females looked different from the others. But they were all too far away to really tell. Today, what looked like the same four came swimming along, nibbled on some barnacles on the pilings, and then all jumped up on the tops of pilings, right next to each other, to groom their feathers. Turns out it's not four mallards, it's two mallards and two Gadwalls, a male and a female of each. Females mallards and female Gadwalls resemble each other; it was the male Gadwall who struck me as different, the other day. So here you have a mixed little flock, which is odd because there are other Gadwalls on this stretch of the river and other mallards another pier south, so it seems like any ducks who wanted to be a flock could find their own species to hang around with. And it's not like mallards and Gadwalls can't tell themselves apart: I saw another pair of mallards run another pair of Gadwalls off this morning, protecting their favorite stretch of moss-covered wall. So I wonder what gives?

Meanwhile a lone male bufflehead was working the same pilings as the mixed flock, but nobody minded him because he was diving, not grazing on whatever clings to pilings at low tide.