Another odd duck

[madhatter]

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0Q532ODWoM72W

Rather a dull drizzly day in Swanley Park and among the Mallards was this duck with unusual markings. Similar in size to a Mallard, head and bill same colour as a male but with a brown body and a white throat. My books don’t show it. My bird ID app tentatively suggests Mallard and so does the Google image search.

However looking through Mallard photos it seems that all domestic ducks are descended from Mallards and hybrids not that unusual between domestic and wild ducks, and something called a Duclair has many similarities to the one in the photo, which makes it just a Mallard, rather disappointingly.

Still, the same small pond had gulls, moorhens, Canada and Greylag geese (as usual) but also a heron and a tight group of 6 slightly cheesed-off looking cormorants, possibly because even holding out their wings was not going to dry them out on a like today.

[Gengulphus]

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0Q532ODWoM72W

Rather a dull drizzly day in Swanley Park and among the Mallards was this duck with unusual markings. Similar in size to a Mallard, head and bill same colour as a male but with a brown body and a white throat. ...

Er... That's the same photo as you posted in the previous thread, and isn't what you describe. I suspect you've inadvertently posted the wrong link...

Gengulphus

[madhatter]

Apologies.

Not familiar with the way iCloud shared albums work I just tried adding the new photos to the previous album but although they appeared on my phone, they didn’t appear from the link.

Now deleted that album and put the new photos in a new one :

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0QGWZuqDGbyzej

[Breelander]

There can be a wide variety of Mallard colourings, apparently.

Years ago, Charlie Moores coined the colorful term “manky mallard” to describe the motley menagerie of feral and domestic mallards...

http://www.10000birds.com/manky-mallard ... llards.htm

[Itsallaguess]

Apologies.

Not familiar with the way iCloud shared albums work I just tried adding the new photos to the previous album but although they appeared on my phone, they didn’t appear from the link.

To be fair, Eider thought that would have worked too....

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[madhatter]

Years ago, Charlie Moores coined the colorful term “manky mallard” to describe the motley menagerie of feral and domestic mallards...
http://www.10000birds.com/manky-mallard ... llards.htm

It does say somewhere in there that bibs can (rarely) occur naturally in wild Mallards so it need not be a domestic duck.

Footscray Meadows today and in addition to standard Swans, Coots, Moorhens and Mallards was a few Egyptian geese, Tufted Ducks, Gadwall and Little Grebes. Also heard a Cetti’s Warbler.

Also watched a Grey Wagtail repeatedly fly up a few inches to a few feet from a log in the river, usually returning to the same spot. Catching flying insects I suppose, though too quick for me to see.

No herons or Egrets etc this time but in addition to the usual dog walkers, a man in boots was slowly walking along the river bed, loudly talking to his colleague who kept to the bank. Might be a water-bailiff? Not seen that before there.

Several places along the banks have had logs anchored to the stream bed, a few forming a partial shallow “dam”, but mostly longitudinal, cutting across “bays” in the bank. I presume the idea is to protect some banks from being undercut, and provide a mix of fast flowing and still areas.