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From: svihla@evax0.eng.fsu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Strange birds and Odd ducks
Message-ID: <1991Apr7.040924.5415@mailer.cc.fsu.edu>
Date: 7 Apr 91 08:09:23 GMT
Reply-To: svihla@evax0.eng.fsu.edu
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News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.3-4


 A while back I posted a query regarding two birds who whizzed over my
head while I was canoeing on a stream in Northern Florida.  The birds were
large, had mottled black and white markings, and had red heads.  They flew
with their necks extended.  I thought, judging from their size, that they
must have been turkeys or turkey vultures.  I re-encountered these birds 
this past week-end.  They whizzed over my head several times without 
allowing me a very good look, until I finally came upon one perched in a
dead tree overlooking the water.  Close examination revealed this bird to
be some weird sort of duck.  It was huge, for a duck anyway, more the size
of a goose, I'd say.  It definitely had duck feet, though.  Its head
was strange looking - bright red and two-tiered - I guess maybe you could
say it had a crest.  I checked my bird books and nothing remotely close
showed up.  It's definitely not a moorhen - it's much too large and I've
seen enough moorhens to know one when I see it.  It's not a vulture, and
it's not a turkey, and it doesn't seem to be any species of duck native to
the area.   WHAT is it, then?