Green Holidays

This article will introduce you to 5 of the most common seen ducks around town ponds and wetland sites.

There are plenty of ducks that all look very similar to the naked eye – especially the females, so these descriptions are focused mainly on the males as they are the most likely ones you will pick out in the water. They will be in their display colours as they try to find a mate.

Most of the time in the spring and summer, the females will be close by the males as well for breeding – or will already be closely followed by a herd of ducklings – so you can start to practice the differences in the females once you have mastered their associated males.

However, outside of the breeding season, most male ducks moult into what is known as their ‘eclipse’ plumage, which is quite different to their summer splendour!

They all turn into rather drab birds – looking very similar to their female friends. Well, they don’t want to stand out to predators when they don’t have to!

Anyway, straight to it then with a firm favourite:

Mallard:
We should all know this one purely because it is always about on almost every pond or canal where there are humans – as they know that we will probably feed them!

As a result, they are usually quite bold birds and will waddle over to us for priority feeding if there are other birds like Mute Swans about!

photo credit: Tomi Tapio

Key points of the mallard male is his beautiful green head, pinched in by a white collar but there are several others ducks with that feature too. So you will have to look for other signs: like he will also have a bright yellow bill which seperates him from some of the other similar birds.

Another point is that he will have blue patches on his wings rather than white or green (not visible in this image) – and in flight these show as a blue bands with white edging.

Shelduck:
Here is another one with a green head – but he has some more striking features to tell him apart. Both male and female look the same; bright white birds (very goose-like) with a band of brown across the shoulders, then a thick collar of white before the dark green head and bright orange beak! You won’t be able to miss them once you see them.

The main and obvious difference between the sexes is that the male has an extra ‘knobbly’ bit at the top of his bill – as in the image below – a bit like the Mute Swans.

photo credit: Vlaskop

Shoveler:
Another green-headed common bird is the Shoveler – so called because of its very wide black shovel-shaped bill.

It sits lower in the water than a mallard, and has a noticable yellow eye when viewed at close range. It has the same broad white neck as the Shelduck with brown shoulders and sides too, but there the similarity ends. This bird has a very low profile where the Shelduck sits high in the water and is more ‘white’.

photo credit: chapmankj75

Goldeneye:
As its name suggests it has a bright golden eye set bold in its green head – but manages to look nothing like the Shevelor despite this!

It has a much more rounder, pronounced head that looks like it has been stuck onto the body like a giant pom-pom! It also has a bright white cheek patch beside its smaller, pointy bill. The rest of the body is very pale with and almost stripy back where black and white feathers mix as shown below:

photo credit: Graham Racher

Mandarin Duck:
No need to worry about the green head for this one as there is too much else to give it away! This species is one of our most decorative and colourful ducks – if not birds – in the UK and you can see them quite frequently in wetland reserves.

They are difficult to describe as there is so much to say – so look at the picture below to be amazed! They have delicate patterning on their seemingly ‘giant’ cheeks if you look close enough; their long white eye streak goes on forever; and they have the most unusual orange ‘sails’ jutting up from their wings when they are on the water.

And the bright blues and purples……

photo credit: Tambako the Jaguar

Next time you head out to the wetlands – have a look for these males – and try to find their partners hidden among all the other brown looking birds on the water!

See you soon…..

This is a great way to learn about local wildlife – and entertain the kids!

Why don’t you spend a short time devising a nature key that can be followed local to where you live. For example a key identifying local plants, leaves on trees, animals at a zoo or even breeds of dog in the city!

It doesn’t take long to gather the information to get started – and then setting up the key can be quite a puzzle in itself – enough to keep you entertained as well as teaching you the information too!

Yeah – you can use a printed guide or photographic aid – but they will include all the plants ever! You only really need 10 to 20 to cover your local patch in a season, so yours will be more relevant to you. Your key doen’t need to incldue every single plant, tree or animal in the country – just those most common – the ones your kids will see almost every time they go out.

And they don’t have to use microscopes to tell them apart – just their eyes and your guide!

Breeds of Dogs:
If we use breeds of dogs as the test mode it should be easy to follow as we all know the most common dog breeds around town. Let’s use the following examples: Dalmation, Great Dane, Bichon Frise and Jack Russel

Now, with a key – it’s good to get rid of the obvious ones first, as they need no further description. So for example the Dalmation can’t really be confused with anything else – so that is your first step: ‘Is it white with black or brown spots all over?’

Then you can divide on size – so ‘Is it shorter than a Dalmation?’ The answer ‘No’ takes you straight to Great Dane and the answer ‘Yes’ then follows to the final question: ‘Is it white and fluffy?

Obviously this is only simple – and there are many other dogs that are shorter than a Dalmation – but you only focus on what you are most likely to see – let the more unusual ones dangle the carrot for further learning.

photo credit: Tanja de Bie

Getting Outdoors:
Most plants or animals have a specific feature that is unique to it that can narrow down your options when trying to identify something. So by getting to a general point you are halfway there – then by looking for these ‘individual’ things you can find the exact species.

For example, the early dog violet and the heath dog violet look very similar from head height – but they have very obviously different colour spurs if you get closer. And location can make a difference in the case of the cowslip and an oxlip. Both look quite similar – but the oxlip only occurs in the East of England.

So find plants/trees or animals that you already know are very common where you live and start from there!

Obviously the seasons change and bring out different plants or things to look for. Like deciduous trees don’t have leaves in the winter, and many trees and bushes have blossom in the spring. Seasonal plants only last a few weeks and sometimes look very different when they have ‘gone to seed’.

And birds and mammals don’t always hang out in the same continents let alone the same woodlands – so you can watch them come and go – as well as the young growing up and moving on.

All this change means that you can have the same activities running throughout the seasons in the same locations – but with different plants and animals to look out for. And it is a great way to connect to the landscape and to see the changes through time.

It can also make you feel like you belong to that area.