Duck Breed Focus - Welsh Harlequin

PotatoWaffles said:

Hmmmmmm interesting. Maybe Jeepers will look different after molting, which she should be doing very soon. WH are so cool

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Tevyes Dad said:

Because I read that the Welsh Harlequin comes into their pattern at around 2 years, I decided to go back and check Rhiannon (my only WH so I can't pull a fast one on you

) one year ago... Here is what I came up with. The picture on the left is from February of 2015 which would have made her 11 months old. The picture on the right was from a few days ago making her 23 months old. I adjusted the left picture (darkened it actually) so that the grass/straw came out the same level as the picture on the right. The right picture was untouched. This should give the pictures a somewhat common reference point. You can see at nearly 2 years her pattern is quite a bit more developed than it was in 2015.

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Tevyes Dad said:

Wow! you are fast .  Jeepers is right around 1 year now right?

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NorthFLChick said:

That's a dramatic difference in color when you post her pictures side by side like that. Very interesting!

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Tevyes Dad said:

Yeah.  All the ducks get a little sun bleached (especially my Chocolate runner) so they look darker and newer after a molt, but I thought Rhiannon was actually getting darker (I have told my wife several times over this past year, "I think Rhiannon is getting prettier every time I look at her.") and this is the first time I put the pictures side by side. So I wasn't imagining it... I guess most of the pictures we see are of ducks in their first year.  After that many people probably go on enjoying them, but don't feel so compelled to share photos of them (been there done that - don't need to do it again).

Thank you to @PotatoWaffles
  for sparking my interest here.  She pointed out that her WH was so much lighter than mine and we thought it might be phase but we both got ours from Metzer and they sell only Silver Phase so I started reading the difference (and made my earlier post).  Hers is lighter than mine because it is a year younger and looks very much like mine did a year ago.  WH are so cool!!!

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PotatoWaffles said:

I still think yours is prettier

But I love my little Jeep Jeep!

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Tevyes Dad said:

We'll see in a year when it is fair I bet Jeepers will rise to the challenge.  If anything I think she has more markings than Rhiannon did at her age.  And a year makes a HUGE difference.  A year ago, Noir had 1 little white feather on her shoulder.  Now it would be easier to count her black feathers than her white ones.

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PotatoWaffles said:

That many white feathers in one year?? I figured Noir's collection of snow feathers were at least a couple year's worth. My chocolate runner will be a year in April. She molted last November and no sign of white, but my year old Cayuga molted in December and has a handful of white feathers now. I wonder how different they will look in just a year.

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Tevyes Dad said:

Feb 2015 / Feb 2016 - Noir is a little younger so this is 9 months old vs 21 months old.

In her 9 month pic, she has a couple white feathers showing near her tail. At 6 months they weren't even there... Just the one white one on the shoulder that is hidden in the first pic (that was there with her first adult feathers).

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