I wasn’t at all sure what kind of duck came in for a landing at Jordan Lake.

Got home and started investigating.

WooWee. I had photographed a female long-tailed duck.

It is rarely seen at Jordan Lake – it is a migratory bird that stays mostly on our coastline in the winter.

I am sorry the pictures are not the best: I hope to see the bird again and get a better shot to share.

BTW a great identification source is the bird app “Merlin” at the Cornell Ornithology site.   http://merlin.allaboutbirds.org