Yep. Particularly for me--- SoCal and indeterminate tomatoes. I'm doing "ok" with my beneficials but I'm still working on the diversity of plants to attract the pirate bugs and such. I'm still trying to figure out how to get some buckwheat and/or alfalfa into my tiny backyard. And I don't ever see yarrow or tansy seeds/seedlings at the garden centers. I was hoping that lacewings would be able to take care of these pests because I definitely am going to purchase some in the next week. I just don't want to shell out more money for the "other" beneficials if I don't have a nice home for them to put out future generations. Looks like UC IPM isn't as thorough for the tomato bug as they are for other pests. You never had to deal with them when you lived down here jean? Thanks Kevin

It's domestic hybrid, looks like a Pekin/Muscovy/perhaps even domesticated Mallard mix-undoubtedly progeny of dumped Easter ducklings

As mentioned I had seen some pairs closer to the road on another local deep pond earlier in the week. They were mixed in with some common mergansers. Definitely a green head on the drakes. At a quick glance I mistook them for mallard drakes, but seemed very strange that they were mixed in with Common Mergansers (who seem to really dislike mallards) So probably is Greater Scaup, Rendering from WhatBird.com. I think this is it.

I need help IDing a duck. It was slightly larger than a mallard, had a pink bill with black/brown mottling/ had a black head with a white ring around the eye, a white ring around its neck, a light grey back, its legs seemed to be set further back on its body than the mallard (which leads me to believe it may be a diving duck?) and were a brownish grey color, and its tail was fairly wide and stuck up like a ruddy duck, but it was WAY bigger than a ruddy duck and other than the tail, looked nothing like a ruddy duck. It was the only one of its kind with some local mallards (4-5 drakes in eclipse plumage, 4-5 females, and about 5 or 6 of this year's juveniles), in a slow moving small creek (maybe 20-30 ft across and maybe 3 ft deep at the deepest). Can't figure out what this duck is, maybe a hybrid, a juvenile, or a drake in eclipse plumage, or some combination??? Any help or directions to who (or where) I should go for help would be appreciated!