At this time of the year I am always looking for birds in the waters off of Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, like this scaup, a small diving duck, that I spotted on Monday. There is a Greater Scaup (Aythya marila) and a Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis) and they are quite similar in appearance.
For the sake of identification, I am going to assume that this is a “Greater” one—I do not want to damage its self-esteem by calling it “Lesser.”
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Great shot of the duck. I’d not heard of scaups before, greater or lesser!
There is also a New Zealand Scaup (Aythya novaeseelandiae) that I have not yet seen. New Zealand is high on the list of places that I would love to visit.
I hope you get to see it, Mike.
Your subtle sense of humor’s always as delightful as your photos, Mike.
Thanks. My style of writing tends to be a direct reflection of my personality and my mood. Some people write in a way that is quite different from the way that they speak. For me, though, there is almost no difference.
Nice! I love how you protected the self-esteem of the lesser duck.
I am always mildly irritated by comparative-type names, which are helpful only if you see multiple species side by side, or by the use of “common” as part of a species name for birds that may not be frequently seen and/or may be uncommonly beautiful. As far as I am concerned, virtually all birds could have “great” in their names. Sometime I don’t like the real names, so I make up my own more fanciful ones. 🙂
I agree 💯 Mike!
Great shots and a smile.