The Duck Thread

[Julie Birb]

Look what I found today! I went with on a class field trip to our local, small, free zoo. Just animals native to Kansas, nothing too fancy. I've been to the park where the ducks and geese hang out hoping I don't find any Easter ducks that have been dumped. I've never seen these drakes hanging around. Guess they have figured out where the best buffet in town is! Right under the .25 fish food machine! What color is the lightest drake?

[/IMG]
Went around the rest of the zoo and when we got back to the pond, another Drake had shown up! It's a cloudy day and the pics were from a long enough distance that even zoomed in tight, I had to edit them. Sorry they're grainy. It certainly doesn't do them justice! Pretty boys.

Sweet things. What a treat. They are beautifully colored. And to add to your post, I was coming out of my doctor's office today and accidentally scared two mallards off. One of them was the color of the one in your photo. I presume the colored one was the gal. The guy was typical mallard color but she was kinda light creamy mocha colored and her coloring was smooth. She did not have the typical female mallard coloring at all. I was stumped and baffled. I am in Bend, Oregon.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Look what I found today! I went with on a class field trip to our local, small, free zoo. Just animals native to Kansas, nothing too fancy. I've been to the park where the ducks and geese hang out hoping I don't find any Easter ducks that have been dumped. I've never seen these drakes hanging around. Guess they have figured out where the best buffet in town is! Right under the .25 fish food machine! What color is the lightest drake?


[/IMG]
Went around the rest of the zoo and when we got back to the pond, another Drake had shown up! It's a cloudy day and the pics were from a long enough distance that even zoomed in tight, I had to edit them. Sorry they're grainy. It certainly doesn't do them justice! Pretty boys.

The light one I believe is a Buff they all are beautiful .

 

[suzy4027]

Hi miss Lydia! I had no idea what a buff duck looked like! In fact, like Julie Bird, I thought the lighter duck was a female until I changed angles and saw the drake feather. The mallard in the first pic had an almost burgundy chest and his head looked like a purplish chocolate until the sun caught it and it had a more blueish green sheen to it. The other mallard that showed up later had a beautiful almost royal sheen to his head when the sun hit it right. His body was almost a lavender/silver tone. Here we are in a zoo and I'm taking 15 pics of the ducks on the coi pond! Lol. I've official jumped down the rabbit, wait, DUCK hole! Next stop, crazy duck lady!! All aboard!

 

[Julie Birb]

The light one I believe is a Buff they all are beautiful .

Thank you Miss Lydia. I had never seen one before in my life. My first thought when they took off was that the buff one shouldn't be flying because she's domestic. Then I said to myself, she must be wild since she can fly. I couldn't wrap my head around the concept. So is a wild buff a mutation or maybe a mixture of a wild and a domestic?

 

[Julie Birb]

It shows!        I get enjoyment from you enjoying yourself.  LOL

Awww, thank you. Ducks are a wonderful topic to get immersed in.

 

[Reese7383]

Hi miss Lydia! I had no idea what a buff duck looked like! In fact, like Julie Bird, I thought the lighter duck was a female until I changed angles and saw the drake feather. The mallard in the first pic had an almost burgundy chest and his head looked like a purplish chocolate until the sun caught it and it had a more blueish green sheen to it. The other mallard that showed up later had a beautiful almost royal sheen to his head when the sun hit it right. His body was almost a lavender/silver tone. Here we are in a zoo and I'm taking 15 pics of the ducks on the coi pond! Lol. I've official jumped down the rabbit, wait, DUCK hole! Next stop, crazy duck lady!! All aboard!

Tooo late. I've trampled into that territory in only 7wks. I simply can't get enough of my ducks. Especially my cuddle duck GreyFeather. He's the house duck in my flock of 8. If you scroll up you can see a photo of us as he had woke me to go out and play with his friends.

I spend hours outside with them and seems to be the main topic of my conversations.

 

[pairaducks]

It started as fun for the kids. When they lost interest I of course took over taking care. I love it!
6 Pekins, 2 Khakis chicks, and 2 Mallards chicks to start. I want to add some Cayugas, and some Blue and Black Swedish a little later.
Any pointers? I've read the threads in here for the breeds, but it just seems like there's so much more I'm missing here :/

 

[Miss Lydia]

I think it's a KC instead of Buff.

 

[Miss Lydia]

It started as fun for the kids. When they lost interest I of course took over taking care. I love it!
6 Pekins, 2 Khakis chicks, and 2 Mallards chicks to start. I want to add some Cayugas, and some Blue and Black Swedish a little later.
Any pointers? I've read the threads in here for the breeds, but it just seems like there's so much more I'm missing here

So many breeds to choose from go by what you like, I started with Muscovy's 11 yrs ago when I met 2 drakes in the river below our home. I stayed with the breed mainly because they are different than other domestics and I felt I wanted to keep it that way. [They all talk the same language of Muscovy.]
One day I would like to have Runners, Buffs, KC but since all my flock runs together I will probably keep to one breed. I'll just have to wait and see. I love them all.

Welcome to BYC!

 

[flowerchild88]

It's been pouring here for days, and days to come. My chickens aren't too pleased with it but my ducks are having the time of their life lol. They got a new 6ft x 2ft pool today I'll have to take pics as soon as I can take my phone out there without it getting soaked lol