Birds at the Park, Weekend of January 16-17, part 2/2

[dragoness_e]

Sunday was sunnier, and we had a variety of ducks.


Sleeping Blue Heron


This fellow was lurking in the back of a crowd...

Crowd of birds


Thanks to an informative article, I realized that a lot of the strange ducks around the park ponds were domestic ducks or hybrids. I already knew the Muscovy ducks were domesticated, but I learned that all other domestic ducks are descended from the mallard duck. They are, of course, much larger, having been bred for meat and eggs. A lot of them still have that funny little tail feather curl that marks a mallard.

Buff Duck


This is a Buff Orpington Duck, or Buff Duck, one of those domesticated mallard breeds.

Dark Mysterious Strangers





These mystery ducks are a domestic duck of some type--note the tail curl on the one. They might be Cayugas.

These are wild ducks


Our friends the Lesser Scaup. But what's the mysterious little brown duck in the middle? She's a female Lesser Scaup.

Female Scaup




Finally, by this time of year, we have some migratory Canada Geese.

Canada Geese


This pair actually swam along behind us, trying to catch up. I think they spotted the bag of stale bread in Steve's hand.