While Mark and Cherry were completing their nature walk and phone call with Cliff, Jules Rivera gave us a partial vignette of Rusty’s life. Rusty was taking his own nature walk when he spied a peregrine falcon on a tree stump and snapped a photo. He sent the photo to friends on his “chat group,” expecting them to really appreciate it. At least one sure did.

Days later, he went to his “Woods Scouts” meeting, run by the inept and corrupt Ranger Shaw. In a touching show of nepotism, Ranger Shaw awarded a merit badge to his son, Robbie, who submitted Rusty’s falcon photo as his own work. Rusty was a touch peeved at Robbie’s perfidy and confronted Ranger Shaw. Rusty’s defense was somewhat lacking, as he didn’t have his phone with him. His two lackluster friends, Ian and Ernie, also failed to stick up for Rusty. For his own part, Ranger Shaw relied on his nepotistic and incompetent character, failing to question Robbie or do any kind of investigation. Instead, he accused Rusty of being jealous and petty over Robbie’s success.

Cherry came to pick Rusty up from his humiliating meeting, and he revealed the treachery done against him. But Rusty had the good sense to tell his mother to stay out of his business. Instead, Cherry cheered him up a bit by revealing that they are all going on a vacation to Las Vegas, which has some woods and animals he can photograph. Woohoo. But why any kid Rusty’s age would get excited about going to Las Vegas is a real mystery to me.

As usual, Mark “photo bombs” the Sunday panels, as if his absence might make us forget that he is the source of this information. Fat chance of that! It would be much nicer if Jules Rivera held a tighter rein on Mark and let his subject have the starring role.  This is supposed to be about Nature, not Mark, Jules!

The normal online nature sources report that the American Wigeon is a “dabbler duck”, meaning that it prefers skimming water surfaces for vegan food, rather than diving as other ducks do. There doesn’t seem to be a lot to say about wigeons, which may be why Mark spends so much time harping on the green band that extends around the eyes and the nape. But the top of the head is white, which is why this duck is also known as the baldpate duck. They seem to be vegetarian, except for females in breeding season, when they consume snails, water beetles, and other small bugs to provide protein for the eggs.