The varied water birds seen at Nelson’s winter waterfront continue to impress. This season I have shown swans, coots, goldeneyes and scaups. Here are three more species recorded today.
Mr. and Mrs. Hooded Merganser swim past.
This is one of a number of Redhead Ducks seen during a snow shower.
Finally, an adult Great Blue Heron was seen resting on the broken pilings of the old C.P.R. dock.
That heron looks as if he’s really cold
I have been trying to identify a duck/goose that was at Duck Bay by the soccer field about 3 weeks ago. There was only one of it’s kind, certainly not a bird I have ever seen before. It was larger than a mallard and smaller than a Canada goose. I feed the ducks and geese wheat so they come quite close to me. This bird was similar in colour to the head of the redhead duck…a medium reddish brown. It’s most distinctive feature was that it had red skin around it’s eyes which continued down toward the neck. The beak was lighter in colour. It was a bit aggressive with the other birds. It fanned out it’s tail feathers which were rounded at the ends. The bird was fairly bold as it took wheat from my hand once.The closest image I could find on the internet was a Muscovy Duck. Any other ideas or sightings of the same bird?
Your bird is certainly not a native wild duck. Both Mallards and Muskovys, have been bred into all sorts of odd-looking creatures. For some examples, have a lookout these so-called Manky Muscovy Ducks.
https://www.10000birds.com/manky-muscovy-ducks.htm
Dale, I agree with Carlo. A Muscovy Duck has been seen at various places around the Lake for a half-dozen years. It may be a domestic escapee.
Awesome shots Alistair…
I particularly like the Mr & Mrs