Birds and Water

There used to be Muscovy ducks at the lake, but they're almost all gone now. We still have the mallard crosses, but now instead of huge Muscovys, we have some slender, upright Indian runner crosses instead. Here are some of the ducks, plus a few others, taken last week.

First up, that one remaining Muscovy. Their feet are tremendous - the claws on them!



Next, four mallard ducks on a log. One jumps in the water and swims off, and in the center shot one is extending her wing pretty dramatically. She almost looks like she has a peacock's tail.







Next, a Pekin (the white one) and two Indian runner crosses - the slightly out-of-focus one is closer to the standard, being black. Note their upright, slender shape and their flat faces.



Up next, three mongrel mallard drakes. The first one is scruffy green, but the second is almost blue-headed, and his white-strewn feathers are kind of pretty, I think. The third is also rather striking.







Here a couple of mallard ducks run across the gravel. "Owowowow", right?





There are dozens and dozens of Canada geese, many of them first-year teenagers. There's a big white domestic one as well, and also this magnificent huge greylag.



When we first got there, there was a Great blue heron across the water at the opposite shore. While I was taking the greylag's picture, the heron fly overhead and settled on a post on the dock.