Tuesday, November 10, 2015

A very odd and very lost duck.

Sarah came in from a run this weekend and said there was a duck in Cannon Hill Pond, a kind of duck she hadn't seen before. I would guess that this bird is about half again as large as the resident mallards. We took a lot of pictures and video. Mercifully, here are only a few:



As you can see from the videos, it was really into grooming. The dark feathers were more of an iridescent  green. I would guess that it is a Muscovy duck. It is native to Central America and South America, although there are feral populations of these ducks which establish themselves around the globe. There are folks who breed them.  This may be one that got away.

Some websites mention that these can be an invasive species. 

I remember how I really enjoyed the wild turkeys five years ago, before their numbers swelled and turkey diarrhea  made the sidewalks slippery. Hope that doesn't happen with these ducks. Maybe they will interbreed with the turkeys. One can only hope.

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