Duck

Today was perfect weather for ducks, so here is a duck.

I have photographed this particular duck several times in the past, but I don't believe it has appeared in a blip. It lives on the Marden in the centre of Calne, and is often to be found on The Wharf, a stretch it shares with a swan.

Incidentally, while I was standing by the river photographing the ducks, this same swan came out of the water some considerable distance away and walked right up to me, pecked at the ground and then swung its neck to full height in my direction and made a very threatening noise. I thought that was a bit rich, as it had approached me, rather than me getting too close, and I said so to it, as it resumed pecking the grass.

Although it doesn't look like one, I think this is actually a mallard. Some mallards have been bred domestically, sometimes crossed with other ducks in the Anas genus..., and this has led to hybrids with some changes in their size and plumage and other features such as the tuft on the head of the mallard I blipped before. They are more likely to be found in town and village centres where they are fed by humans rather than truly wild ducks. They will all have that flash of intense blue on their sides, however, which identifies them as mallards to other mallards.