ML646617276

Observation details

First seen sleeping under the bridge with bill tucked. Even without seeing the bill or breast, this bird struck me as RBME due to its slimness, wispier/less full crest, and duller brown head. When it did wake up, it unfortunately slowly began to swim away upstream, but I was able to also see that its bill seemed thinner, longer, and lighter colored than COME. It also lacked the sharp neck contrast of a COME. However, it was just too far to be fully confident in the field marks I was seeing. It also didn't seem noticeably smaller than the nearby COME's, but this could've been due to distance/posture. Preemptively leaving as slash and including some sasquatchesque digibin photos to spread the word and in case it's refound. Tragically, we all didn't bring our spotting scopes which would've easily resolved this id.