Blogging and ducks

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been really enjoying getting back in to blogging. John and I together have been keeping NewLandsWithTheKirklands.wordpress.com for our travels. It has been fun writing those blogs though what a lot of pressure that people actually read them. They don't normally take long for me to write but then it's usually several days of adding photos, John reading and editing until they finally get online. Then there is the awkward wondering if anyone will comment. So all in all I am enjoying this return to this blog. As I said I was so surprised to discover how many blogs I wrote in 2010. And I'm now beginning to wonder if I might get back to those levels. But maybe it's just because this month I'm free and easy that there is tjme for blogging again. 

I have just dropped the car off for new anti-roll bar linkages and have taken a wander to the river for the mean time. I have just passed a wool shop and I had been hoping to pass one. Sadly I don't have the pattern with me but I think I'll guess and get some wool anyway. 

Down by the river I was looking at the ducks and decided it would be a good idea to record My Great Duck Fact on here. I'm very proud of this fact as it seems pretty major to me, but I don't think I've ever met anyone that's known it, and a lot of people have just not believed me! So, here's The Fact story... 

When I was in New Zealand in the early months of 2004 I remember seeing a great big pond with loads of brown female mallards on it. I asked our friends how come there were only females but they didn't really know. Some years later, I happened across a very small mention in our big RSPB birds book about how ducks malt (don't feel that's quite the right word, but can't really think of another) in the summer and their replacement feathers for July and August look the same and like a female mallard. And incidentally, they can't fly with these interim feathers. So if you go to a river or pond in July or August it will appear that there are only females, and that's the equivalent time that I was in the Southern Hemisphere. A way to tell them apart is by their beaks. Females have a more brown beak and males have a more yellow beak. 

So there you have it. Go on, check it out next summer by the water. 

Here's the evidence from today. You could just see that some males were beginning to be on the turn...