Any idea what this is

canoesailor

Does anyone know what the duck in the attachment is?

I cant find anything in the UK with a white breast, blue bill and the individual white feathers at the flank. It is possible it's a mixture, but I haven't seen any domesticated birds in the area.

sorry it's a bad picture, I was tryng to stand against strong gusts of wind and couldn't get any closer. so pic represents less than a twelth of overall area.

john

Lindiwe

I'm not in the UK, but my guess would be a mallard-domestic hybrid of some kind.

canoesailor

Lindiwe wrote: »

I'm not in the UK, but my guess would be a mallard-domestic hybrid of some kind.

That's certainly possible and the female in the background looks mallard cross. But this was in the salt marshes on the east coast and there were no domestics in evidence.

Plus, and I hate to admit this, but I was idly watching "The Planet's Funniest Animals" and in one scene, set in America, while the main action was taking place, what appeared to be a family of these passed by in front of the camers. I didn't register them until they were disappearing off screen.

Darren Troy C

What kind of pond is this? People accessible? Is the waterfowl there used to a fairly frequent human population? Looks to me like a result of mallards that have cross-bred one too many times.

canoesailor

Darren Troy C wrote: »

What kind of pond is this? People accessible? Is the waterfowl there used to a fairly frequent human population? Looks to me like a result of mallards that have cross-bred one too many times.

It's a channel through a salt marsh, only accessible to people who are prepared to walk a good distance, nearest habitation is about a mile and a half (as the duck flies), no duck ponds for several miles. There are mallard in the area but very few, over 4 days I only saw about 4 and 3 of them were female.

The beak on this is not right for a mallard though, but the female behind it has the same beak. I think I'll have to write it off as some sort of hybrid, but I'd like to know what cross gave it the "pendant" feathers on the flank.