We saw a Muscovy Duck on our walk tonight! He was hanging out on the sidewalk by the entrance to Rock Creek. At first I mistook him for a Turkey Vulture, then as I got closer, I made out the red marks on his face and realized who he was. I’ve never seen a Muscovy Duck before! :)

The duck was very friendly, and he stood still on the sidewalk as we walked right past him. It’s not often that birds pose so well for head portraits:

The duck seemed to be very happy to stand in the middle of the road. Rich walked up to him to get him to cross the road, but as soon as we turned around, the silly duck turned right around and went back into the road. It made us start asking the obvious question–“why did the duck cross the road?”–and after our Halloween entertainment of Laughy Taffy jokes, the answer was easy: to avoid the elephant who was carrying the chicken who had a frog strapped to his leg, while the baby panda with the diaper rash looked on! (What do other people do while handing out Trick-or-Treat candy, if not read the candy wrappers?) :)