Kaysville Pond

["Steve Coleman" <scoleman at tax dot state dot ut dot us>]

I went out to Layton to visit Wild Bird Center and stock up on bird seed for my back yard, on the way home I stopped at Kaysville Pond to take a look. There wasn't much at first lots of mallards a few green wings a single canvas back. I took my Dad with me after taking a good look around the pond I handed my binoculars to him to take a look. While he was scanning the pond I saw three ducks coming in for a landing. One of them really caught my eye because of the large light colored wing markings nothing like I had seen around here. The other 2 ducks landed out in the pond this one landed on the shore on the east side of the northern most pond closest to the frontage road so I got a good look at him. Here's what I saw long pink legs short pink bill long neck and the posture was very upright. the color a buff color on the breast and belly the back was dark Rufous color getting darker toward the tail turning black near the tail the head was buff and gray as if in transition. My conclusion is a first winter Black Bellied Whistling Duck. I'm thinking this is pretty unusual for this area. I have seen them in Arizona before. I checked and rechecked all three of my guides and that is the only thing that comes close especially my National Geographic guide that shows a picture of an immature duck. I hope someone will take a look and I hope they will see the same bird and confirm what I saw. My dad by the way agrees with me. Other than that I didn't have any other time to do any birding this weekend  but this made my day.

Hoping to hear from some of you Happy Birding Steve