Anyone know what duck this is ..? How cute are these!
At this time of year I become totally preoccupied with ducks, coots, grebes, geese, herons, kingfishers, cuckoos, penny wagtails, pigeons and finches. I'm really not that interested the remainder of the year but love to watch and listen to the courting and nesting rituals and the produce of this.
Well, obviously it's Rubber Duck, desperately trying to keep up with the Convoy pictured below!
ReplyDeleteActually, it's a male Mandarin Duck. Aix galericulata. Originates from China. Impressed I trust?
Wow, yes, impressed. That's why it wasn't in my Book of British Birds. I wonder why it's on the Norfolk Broads - perhaps it's a spy. There was also a much less impressive female with it, tagging along behind carrying the suitcases.
ReplyDeleteI actually found it in our parents' Readers Digest Birds of Britain book, which I must have inherited. It's under 'Introduced Wildfowl', presumably some Victorian went to China, saw it and thought hmm, that will look well on my lake, and now we're infested with the damn things, like the parakeets.
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