This post is dedicated to Jack Gilleland, a home inspector and owner of Home Inspection and Investor Services in Clayton, Ohio. I have known Jack for about five years through the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors. I highly recommend him for anyone need home inspection services in Clayton or the Dayton metro area. If you’re a returning veteran, call him for his veteran special.
Dedications are my way of trying to provide a little extra Google juice for people I have come to know and respect over the years.
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Some of us hope to leave a name in the world when we leave and move on. Some do it simply by leaving progeny. Those of us with no progeny have to find a different way to do it…..
….like maybe discovering a new species of animal or plant.
I think I did! I can’t find the following bird in any of the books in my wildlife library:
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I have named him a cotton-top duck. He was hanging out with the mallards, American coots, Canada geese, and what I think are snow geese, so who knows what he is? Until I get the DNA profile back from the Department of Homeland Security, I’ve placed him with the bufflehead duck since it’s the only duck I can find with a description “large puffy head.” So his scientific name is tentatively Bucephala cotton topus russelii.
Cotton-top was swimming around at Lake Murray where I often go to take a walk, feed the birds and squirrels, and take pictures:
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He’s my duck, so don’t try to abscond with him. However, if you know what he really is, let me know. That way I can cancel the DNA profile with DHS……. they are expensive! lol
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I’m sure someone will be able to tell you – I wouldn’t have a clue! Great pics!
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I believe that you found a White-crested Duck!
Good pictures! 🙂
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I think you’re right! Darn you! lol
It’s on Google but nowhere else. Not at Wikipedia, not even at Ducks Unlimited.
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Here’s some information about the white-crested duck from efowl.com: http://www.efowl.com/White_Crested_Ducks_p/1009.htm
It’s supposed to be an all-white duck, though, which my cotton-top is not. However, according to efowl, “A crest can occur in all domestic breeds of ducks that originated from the Wild Mallard due to a gene mutation.”
So my cotton-top is probably a defective bird. My luck………….. lol
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Russel – sounds like maybe it’s a gene-mutated duck, but I did enjoy your scientific name for him!
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Yeah, but now I’m all sad and depressed after finding that he’s just a bad duck instead of a new duck. 😦
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Nice hairdo 🙂 lol
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Wow! Sure looks to be an interesting bird. Great pic.
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I’m so disappointed that one of the previous commenters knew what it was. I really wanted it to be the cotton-top duck.
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We have A small number of them in Faroe Island 🙂
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