Whenever I get to feeling smug about all the marvelous birds I’ve been privileged to see, all I have to do to bring utter humility is to check a calendar I recently purchased.
This particular box calendar consists of a little square page for every day of the month. It has tons of birds I never heard of.
One day on the calendar showed a smew, or Mergllus albellus for its scientific name. This is a white and black duck with a Mohawk head crest — a very dashing duck, and one I knew nothing about. To me, the smew was new.
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