Old Pictures Reveals a New Species to put on the Life List

   Today when looking through my old photographs, I happened upon a photograph I had quite forgotten about. Unfortunately, I have a bad habit of taking photos of a species that I am clueless as to the identity thereof, but then completely forget about the photo and find it months later when looking through the photos on my camera. Just such an incident occurred today. I found a photo of a mysterious duck, and finally identified it, upping my life list total to 123 species. Here is the photograph:

   Any ideas? The answer is: Ruddy Duck. Upon examining the species ID on Cornell Lab's All About Birds database, I noticed somthing that has discombobulated me for some time. The range map doesn't show this species living in Ohio. I decided to check eBird's species list for Ohio during mid December, when the photograph was taken. Sure enough, the ruddy duck was listed as common (but that is a whole other article). To make a short story, well, short, I finally identified the bird in the photo taken over a month ago. Another bird on the life list!