On the river two days ago, a dead bufflehead. Actually, IN the river. Just floating, bobbing on the waves. I was afraid he was my lone male who's been coming up here for a couple of years from the flock that winters off Brooklyn, but I saw a lone male yesterday in that guy's favorite stretch of water, so I'm thinking this was some stranger duck who couldn't take the long trip down from Canada. Most likely an old guy; if a predator had gotten him -- we don't have many here, but dogs, cats, rats, raccoons -- he wouldn't have been intact, but he was. So he probably just expired from age and exhaustion. Right in his proper spot, a cove of blue water. The kind of ending I guess we could all aspire to. But it was sad to see.