Yesterday I posted an image of two birds I took in Bolsa Chica as they were swimming away from the camera and asked if anyone could tell me what they were. Here they are again…

…and here they are photographed a few seconds earlier…

Yes, it appears you can fool some of the people, some of the time - but you can’t fool N8 over at The Drinking Bird who got the correct answer even while suspecting that rear-views of a female Bufflehead (left) and a mostly-hidden half-asleep Horned/Slavonian Grebe (right) wasn’t quite devious enough! Really? Wow, congrats to him for being a darn good birder in that case, because I really (genuinely) didn’t think the answer was so easy that anyone would suspect I was trying to hide something more difficult!

And there was actually a good reason for posting this photo beyond being aggravating. I just wanted to illustrate the fact that just because two birds are swimming together with not another bird in sight it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re the same species - but then again, I’m sure most 10,000 Birds readers know to check, check, and check again anyway. Especially that clever N8 fellow…