With the amazing warm weather today, I went out looking for ducks in DC.  My
first stop was at the Constitution gardens pond around 9:30am, where I found
a male Gadwall in with the mallards and the pair of American Wigeon that
have been there for awhile now.  Tom Jones and Steve and Jessica Hersey came
out to see the Gadwall.  It was a DC life bird for all of us.

After that, I went down to Hains Pt, where the most interesting bird was a
Tundra Swan seen across the Anacostia swimming up against the seawall of
Bolling Air Force Base.  It was hard to pin down which swan species it was
from so far a distance, so Tom Jones and I headed over to Buzzard Point to
get a better view and confirm it as a Tundra. Also seen were 10 Lesser Scaup
and a Bufflehead.

Afterwards, I went to Anacostia Park where I was pleased to see off of
Poplar Point my first of season Hooded Merganser swimming in the middle of
the Anacostia with a female Bufflehead.

Another duck of interest seen in DC recently was a drake Northern Pintail at
the National Zoo.  After hearing reports that it had been seen for a few
days over the middle of the week, I went out on Thursday afternoon to find
it swimming with the Mallards in the upper pools near the BirdHouse.

  -Wayne Baumgartner
     Washington, DC