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The mallard (/ˈmælɑːrd/ or /ˈmælərd/) (Anas platyrhynchos) is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa.
This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae.
The male birds (drakes) have a glossy green head and are grey on their wings and belly, while the females (hens or ducks) have mainly brown-speckled plumage.
Both sexes have an area of white-bordered black or iridescent blue feathers called a speculum on their wings; males especially tend to have blue speculum feathers. The mallard is 50–65 cm (20–26 in) long, of which the body makes up around two-thirds the length. The wingspan is 81–98 cm (32–39 in) and the bill is 4.4 to 6.1 cm (1.7 to 2.4 in) long. It is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks, weighing 0.72–1.58 kg (1.6–3.5 lb). Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes. This species is the main ancestor of most breeds of domesticated ducks.
Stately and striking, Haddo House casts a huge impression from the moment you set eyes on it. Designed in 1732 by William Adam, the house underwent an opulent remodelling in the 1880s. As a result, it has the clean elegance and swooping lines of the Georgian style with a luxurious Victorian interior.
Family portraits trace generations of Gordons, who played a huge part in Scottish history. George Gordon, 1st Earl of Aberdeen was Lord Chancellor of Scotland; the 4th Earl served as Prime Minister. More recently, Haddo was a maternity hospital during World War II – over 1,200 babies were born here.
The house is surrounded by a terrace garden with a lavish herbaceous border and geometric flower beds.
A magnificent avenue of lime trees leads to Haddo Country Park.
Haddo House is a Scottish stately home located near Tarves in Aberdeenshire, approximately 20 miles (32 km) north of Aberdeen (grid reference NJ868347). It has been owned by the National Trust for Scotland since 1979.
The Gordons, who later became the Earls of Aberdeen and Marquesses of Aberdeen, have lived on the site for over 500 years.
Haddo House sits in or near the site of the old Kellie Castle, the family's previous dwelling which was burnt down by the Covenanters and dates from 1732; it was designed by William Adam in the Georgian Palladian style.
The interior of the house though is late Victorian in style, having undergone refurbishment in 1880 by Wright and Mansfield.
Haddo contains a large art collection, including a series of 85 castles by James Giles, an early work by Claude Lorrain and a Madonna believed to be by Raphael.
There are also several portraits of 19th-century British politicians.
A specially-made display cabinet contains the Cabot Commemorative State Dinner Service. The hand-painted porcelain service with twenty-four settings for an eight-course meal was made by members of the Woman's Art Association of Canada in 1897.
The Canadian government declined to pay the CDN$1,000 asking price. It was purchased privately by members of the House and Senate of Canada and presented on 12 June 1898 to Lady Aberdeen on the occasion of her husband ending his term as Governor-General of Canada.
John Smith did the design work for the kitchens and peripheral buildings in 1843. He returned there in 1845 and built the gate houses at the North and South entrances. Constructed in a rough coarse granite, these single storey buildings are in a Tudor style.
Haddo House's most notable former resident was George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, the British prime minister from 1852–1855.
Another notable period in its history was during WW2 when the house became a maternity hospital for the evacuated mothers of Glasgow.
Nearly 1200 babies were born at Haddo Emergency Hospital, as it was known, and many still come back to visit known affectionately as the Haddo Babies.
The house has a small chapel attached. In the grounds is a theatre, Haddo House Hall, and rehearsal rooms, known as the Peatyards. Haddo House Choral & Operatic Society (HHCOS), a large and vibrant choral society formed in 1945, has its operations base there.
For over sixty years it has been noted for its annual musical and operatic productions.
The mallard (/ˈmælɑːrd/ or /ˈmælərd/) (Anas platyrhynchos) is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa.
This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae.
The male birds (drakes) have a glossy green head and are grey on their wings and belly, while the females (hens or ducks) have mainly brown-speckled plumage.
Both sexes have an area of white-bordered black or iridescent blue feathers called a speculum on their wings; males especially tend to have blue speculum feathers. The mallard is 50–65 cm (20–26 in) long, of which the body makes up around two-thirds the length. The wingspan is 81–98 cm (32–39 in) and the bill is 4.4 to 6.1 cm (1.7 to 2.4 in) long. It is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks, weighing 0.72–1.58 kg (1.6–3.5 lb). Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes. This species is the main ancestor of most breeds of domesticated ducks.
Stately and striking, Haddo House casts a huge impression from the moment you set eyes on it. Designed in 1732 by William Adam, the house underwent an opulent remodelling in the 1880s. As a result, it has the clean elegance and swooping lines of the Georgian style with a luxurious Victorian interior.
Family portraits trace generations of Gordons, who played a huge part in Scottish history. George Gordon, 1st Earl of Aberdeen was Lord Chancellor of Scotland; the 4th Earl served as Prime Minister. More recently, Haddo was a maternity hospital during World War II – over 1,200 babies were born here.
The house is surrounded by a terrace garden with a lavish herbaceous border and geometric flower beds.
A magnificent avenue of lime trees leads to Haddo Country Park.
Haddo House is a Scottish stately home located near Tarves in Aberdeenshire, approximately 20 miles (32 km) north of Aberdeen (grid reference NJ868347). It has been owned by the National Trust for Scotland since 1979.
The Gordons, who later became the Earls of Aberdeen and Marquesses of Aberdeen, have lived on the site for over 500 years.
Haddo House sits in or near the site of the old Kellie Castle, the family's previous dwelling which was burnt down by the Covenanters and dates from 1732; it was designed by William Adam in the Georgian Palladian style.
The interior of the house though is late Victorian in style, having undergone refurbishment in 1880 by Wright and Mansfield.
Haddo contains a large art collection, including a series of 85 castles by James Giles, an early work by Claude Lorrain and a Madonna believed to be by Raphael.
There are also several portraits of 19th-century British politicians.
A specially-made display cabinet contains the Cabot Commemorative State Dinner Service. The hand-painted porcelain service with twenty-four settings for an eight-course meal was made by members of the Woman's Art Association of Canada in 1897.
The Canadian government declined to pay the CDN$1,000 asking price. It was purchased privately by members of the House and Senate of Canada and presented on 12 June 1898 to Lady Aberdeen on the occasion of her husband ending his term as Governor-General of Canada.
John Smith did the design work for the kitchens and peripheral buildings in 1843. He returned there in 1845 and built the gate houses at the North and South entrances. Constructed in a rough coarse granite, these single storey buildings are in a Tudor style.
Haddo House's most notable former resident was George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, the British prime minister from 1852–1855.
Another notable period in its history was during WW2 when the house became a maternity hospital for the evacuated mothers of Glasgow.
Nearly 1200 babies were born at Haddo Emergency Hospital, as it was known, and many still come back to visit known affectionately as the Haddo Babies.
The house has a small chapel attached. In the grounds is a theatre, Haddo House Hall, and rehearsal rooms, known as the Peatyards. Haddo House Choral & Operatic Society (HHCOS), a large and vibrant choral society formed in 1945, has its operations base there.
For over sixty years it has been noted for its annual musical and operatic productions.
Below, the full interview with Dr. Nathan Myhrvold (from Nov 21, 2011):
Unless you’ve been hiding under some kind of rock, you’ve probably heard of Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, the stunning six-volume, 2,400-page, 50-pound*, $625 cookbook that came out early this year. Nathan Myhrvold, whose team of 30 spent three-and-a-half years** in a 20,000 square foot lab (complete with a high speed camera and a machine shop) working on the tome, was in town this week to speak to about 250 food and science nerds at an event hosted by The Cookbook Store at the Isabel Bader Theatre. A staggering polymath, Myhrvold had already acquired a pair of master’s (economics and geophysics) and a Princeton Ph.D. (theoretical and mathematical physics) by age 23, before working with Stephen Hawking at Cambridge, holding the Chief Technology Officer job at Microsoft, running a patent empire called Intellectual Ventures and dabbling in photography, paleontology and, of course, cutting-edge food. We sat with Myhrvold over breakfast to talk about the surprising success of Modernist Cuisine and what the future holds for the project.
RS: Some say that the Modernist Cuisine is the cookbook of all cookbooks. Others say it’s like an encyclopedia. Then there are those that look at it as a coffee table book because it’s so visually appealing.
NM: If you’ve got a small apartment, you can use it as the coffee table! [Laughs]
RS: How would you classify the set?
NM: The book was designed to be all those things – everyone can take from it what they want. If you go into a kitchen store, there’s tones of fancy knifes, copper pots, and those things that people buy – some use them as professional tools; some people use them as a status symbol, haha; some people love food and all aspects of it. The book has all the capabilities of those things.
Most people are passionate and curious about cooking, regardless of who you are, then the pictures or the information may be enough. I say passionate and curious because if you are more utilitarian in your goal – a journalist in the UK had said “the top selling cookbook in the UK is Jaime Oliver’s 30 minute meals” – that’s very different. It’s a fine book, but if all you want is to cook a meal in 30 minutes, then go buy his book or a hundred other books like that. That’s a very mission oriented view of cooking. If you’re on a mission, then people already service that, but my book is about satisfying passion and curiosity in a broad way. It’s not about 30 minute meals... there are things in the book that can be used for 30 minute meals and if you wanted a 30 minute meal comparison between Jaime Oliver and our book, we’d be happy to rise to the occasion. But there are also recipes in the book that take a hundred hours [laughs].
If you’re task oriented (what’s the quickest way to cook a 30 minute meal), then I say, buy his book. But if you’re curious how things work, then that’s a different thing.
In terms of whether you need other cook books? Well I have other cookbooks.
This book is designed to be based on 21st century cuisine. It is a broad survey of how traditional cooking methods actually work. So we take (not every single method but) all the principal methods of Western cooking, and many principal methods of Asian or other styled cooking, in the context of 21st century cuisine. Every modern technique we can find. We’re not saying that traditional techniques go away; there’s just no reason to reprint them, lots of other people have done so. Most cases there is an improvement. That was our primer – to be the basic foundation for 21st century cuisine but only in the context of everything else that has happened.
RS: What was the inspiration and motivation behind the massive project?
NM: The book is so different from traditional cookbooks, if you can get by its cost, one thing that cookbooks are about is that it’s simplified. Ask any chef who’s written a cookbook, the cookbook editors are sort of relentless about making in laymen’s term. People ask if they can do every recipe at home, and I say no. I don’t understand why that’s a good goal, at least in my mind, for this book because we’re trying to explain how cooking works. It’s the fundamental question: would you like to hear the real story or would you like to hear the dumbed-down story?
There are a lot of people who would like to know the real story. The fact is that 25% of the recipes in the book – forget about it – you’re not going to do it. To read about them and learn about them at the same time as other chefs do. Another one of the goals of our book is that everyone who reads it will learn something, even if you’re Ferran Adria or Heston Blumenthal or the best chef in the world – someone’s going to learn something they never knew before.
I think it’s kind of cool, if Thomas Keller learns something from the book and you learn it the same time that he is. It flies in the face of the idea that everything has to be dumbed-down because it’s so different than conventional wisdom. Today I get a lot of journalists saying that this is really for the professional cook – that’s a paternalistic view. It’s not for everybody. If you look online you’ll find thousands of people who are not professions but are cooking from it, sharing their experiences on a blog... any market is not uniform. It’s interesting and complicated.
Another inspiration for the book was the sous vide thread on eGullet that started in 2004 and a lot of people checked in from all walks of life. One of the guys, Bryan Zupon was a Junior at Duke University and he was cooking sous vide in his dorm room, in part because he figured out it was a sort of loop hole that they didn’t allow hot plates but you could use a water bath. This is the spirit of all these people sharing on eGullet.
RS: Given the somewhat niche appeal of the subject, the fact that it’s being reprinted a second time, has the reception for the cookbook surprised you?
NM: There’s two ways you can design a product, broadly speaking: you can go do market research. Most big companies do that – they do focus groups and surveys. It’s probably the way most products are designed and tested. That’s not what we did. The other way you can come up with a design is if you do what you want, and God I hope someone will buy it. That’s the way art is made and great restaurants are made. Appealing to committees and asking people what they want gives you a limited view of things. Having your own vision, like novels that are successful or non-fiction journalism, are pursued by people who have their own idea. So that’s what we did. We had this vision.
Once we had it done and we could show [publishers] what we had done, then it was more concrete vs. “I’m going to cut cans in half, take pictures... they’ll ask what famous photographer are you using? Oh I’m going to do it myself and a guy I found on Craigslist.” I’ll just sound like a creepy person. But after we had it [done], a couple publishers were very interested... but one wanted to print 2000 [copies]. I was like we’re done. It might be a smart number to print, but I was so deep into it that I couldn’t just sell 2000 copies worldwide. That’s just too little. Of course, so far we’ve sold 25,000 and hoping for 30,000 this year, and that’s just in English. There’s still French, German and Spanish. Over time, we hope to sell really a lot... because you want impact. People cook to have other people eat it. If you hire the best chef in Toronto, say “we’re going to give you double your salary but as soon as you finish every one of your dishes we’re going to put it down the garbage disposal,” they wouldn’t want to do it. It wouldn’t be fun. So we wrote these books to have impact. So we hope that people would buy it. Some are going to say “why is it so expensive? Why couldn’t we use shitty paper?” We were making a quality product. Quality actually matters. There’s great rustic, peasant style food all over the world, but there’s also something wonderful about food that’s been refined and elevated. For the same reason it’s wonderful that the world has a Per Se or French Laundry or a Fat Duck. We thought, we should have a really quality book. We’re not going to skimp on the paper and printing – the cost difference was really small – maybe you’d save $20, but so what? It’s not a lot.
If you bought the same number of pounds of cookbooks, if you tried to replicate the same content for traditional cooking, you’d buy more than $600. It would cost you much more money than my book. And it wouldn’t be as cohesive because this was done by one team. We had no idea if it would work, but it seems like it has.
RS: So would you say that real potential can’t be realized until you try, and that you can’t let limitations restrict yourself?
NM: That’s one of the main reasons I did the book. I realized that this could be my contribution to cooking. Maybe in a parallel universe, I became a chef instead of working in Microsoft, going into physics and all the other things I did. If I started a restaurant at this stage in my life – for Seattle to have one more great restaurant, that would be nice – but it wouldn’t have the impact on people. I’d have more impact in i.e. Toronto with this book than if I say had a restaurant in Seattle. I’m not complaining about restaurants, but the ability for someone to find investors, to find space, to create a restaurant, although it’s difficult, people can do that. But a cookbook like this that has all the properties it has and covers all the techniques... who’s going to do that? Big publishing companies are incredibly conservative. Maybe they’re right to be conservative, but in this case, I love food and I love this kind of food, I knew how hard it was to learn this kind of cooking because I was learning it myself and it required lots of research, asking chefs around the world, a lot of experimentation... if I could pull all of this together to make a definitive book, coalesce all the information in one place, it would be hugely valuable. For the chef who would never get a stage at El Bulli or The Fat Duck a huge opportunity. That’s what I hope to be my contribution to food.
RS: Do you find any of the chefs resisting this because now you’ve explained how to do many of these once mysterious techniques?
NM: In general I’ve found most of the Modernist chefs are incredibly helpful. If you ask Ferran [Adria] how to do something, he’ll tell you, but he doesn’t have to explain to everyone what he’s doing. And even in his wonderful cookbook, he didn’t have the page count to go into tutorials. Some of the chefs don’t have the patience, because doing all those step by step things; they’re on to the next cool thing. That’s fair enough, that’s what they’re supposed to do. If you went to a great fashion designer and asked them, teach me how to sew [laughs]... It’s wasn’t a question of people hording ideas (maybe there’s a few people who do hoard ideas but that wasn’t the big phenomenon).
RS: Could it be that this is part of the culture of this movement/cuisine/technique? Where in the past with more traditional methods much of those techniques are guarded or protected vs. now it’s all about sharing knowledge to help advance things?
NM: Cooking still has an interesting structure. The medieval guilds were all about apprenticeships; you learned by turning at 13-year old to a master who treated him a little better than a slave and then they grew until they became the master, where upon they started abusing apprentices. That was the way most professions were. There are professional chef schools, but many of the greatest chefs are self taught which is fine; there’s still a whole idea of apprentices working their way up which is great so long as there’s a certain amount of shared information.
There’s a lot more than gimmicks and tricks; there’s a fundamental basis to the way you do things. Now that we know a way to describe modern cooking, it’s understanding what effects you’re trying to achieve with the food and then understand how to get them. Traditional techniques are sentimental and contradictory. Take roast chicken: crispy skin, moist flesh. Traditional cooking typically tries to make a compromise. Sentimental philosophy of Modernist cuisine is that you cook the inside one way and the outside another way. It’s all about the idea of control – another big idea in Modernist cuisine – you can be in control. The idea that it’s all mystical, that it requires vast amounts of human skill
RS: In working on the MC , what was the biggest myth you debunked?
NM: We found a bunch of errors in food safety – there’s a whole chapter on that. One example is eggs cooked to order should be brought to 145-degrees for 1-second. That does nothing. It’s sort of a cosmetic regulation. There’s a regulation for fish: 145-degrees for 1-second which overcooks the fish. If they said 145-degrees for 12-minutes, it would have some sense to it, but for 1-second it means nothing.
Duck confit is one that some chefs say, if you cook duck in fat, it will create this unique flavour. That’s a fraud. I figured that out because I was trying to understand how the fat can actually penetrate into the meat because fat molecules are large and they won’t go through the membrane. Firstly, what people call fat is actually fatty tissue. Most of what people object to is that it’s rubbery – that’s the collagen matrix that holds the fat; you have to render it to get the fat. Duck fat melts at 14-degrees Centigrade, so how come you have to cook it so hard? It’s not the fat; it’s that the lipids are enclosed in collagen and the collagen needs to be broken down because the lipids are trapped. It’s that collagen that gives rubbery duck skin. I realized the fat couldn’t possibly penetrate the meat so how does it create a unique flavour and texture? And the confit nature of the meat isn’t just at the surface, it goes all the way in. So it had to be a fraud.
We did a taste test, and we either cooked it traditional, sous vide or steamed it. As long as the time and temperature are the same, in a blind taste test, we couldn’t tell the difference. When I tell some chefs this, they almost get angry and don’t agree with it. But I say look, it’s not about agreeing, try it. If you can try in a blind taste test, maybe you can taste things I can’t taste, but no one in our group could taste it.
One of the essences of science is to know this idea that hypotheses can be disproven. And chefs have to understand that there are a lot hypotheses that people take for granted. Some of its correct but a lot isn’t.
RS: What’s your next cookbook project?
NM: Well in terms of a project that’s a little smaller than a giant multi-year, multi-volume extravaganza again. We did one of those, and I’m sure I’ll do another one again at some point, but the books that will come next will be a smaller thing – single topic book. And I can see a list of many single topic books. Imagine if I was doing another volume to Modernist Cuisine? It is a lot of ways to make that next volume by taking a specific topic. But I would also like to see the pastry and desserts so hopefully. One thing that was special about Modernist Cuisine is that we did take this topic approach and we didn’t have any compromises, we wanted to cover everything out there. So we have to find areas that are worthy of our attention; approach different ethnic cuisines or a technique in more specialized form. So there’s a lot of different ways that you could slice it. So we’ll see what happens.
RS: One thing I’ve found interesting is that chefs who have been reticent to use the label “molecular gastronomy” are now suddenly happy to talk about “modern cuisine.” Thoughts?
NM: Well molecular gastronomy is a terrible name. We discuss the history of it in the book. Chefs hate it. The ironic thing is that Hervé This, who’s this French food scientist – he would tell you he’s the father of molecular gastronomy – he feels strongly that that term shouldn’t be used to describe restaurant cuisine, but used for science.
RS: I believe he now refers to it as Note by Note?
NM: The latest thing he’s excited about is called Note by Note cuisine, which I’m not sure I fully understand. It seems to be like if you start using a slang term... it’s possible to be widely used because not anybody knows precisely what it means because they use it in context. I haven’t seen any precise definition of it. Is seems to be about isolating specific characteristics of ingredients and then having a sequence of these things in a menu which is analogous to playing notes of music. That’s my interpretation from the little I’ve seen, and Max, my co-author who reads French better than I do, said that seems to be kind of what he does.
Anyway, Hervé doesn’t want to call it molecular gastronomy; the chefs don’t want to call it molecular gastronomy. Molecular sounds very off-putting to people. If you take a scientific perspective of course everything is molecules and it’s not molecular biology. If there’s a reason to call it molecular biology – because that’s the study of unique molecules of life – and it’s molecules that that you’re concerned with, and there’s no sense that that’s true here. Historically molecular gastronomy was invented as a cool name for a conference. Hervé recently sent an email out to people that he was thrilled that this cuisine was being called modernist. Heston Blumenthal wrote a piece saying the same thing: that as far as he’s concerned, molecular is dead, it’s now modernist. I think modernist has a significant improvement over molecular: first, it’s more encompassing and broader. So what we mean by modern is that people cooking a wide range of styles, it’s not a single style. It includes people who cook foods that are deliberately different; the differentness is part of the point. If you go to Alinea, Moto or El Bulli part of the entire creative point is for it to be new and surprising. Just like artists that do that. There are people who use surprise as part of the experience. There are also a lot of chefs that don’t cook that way but modern techniques are still part of their cuisine. Modern art encompasses a wide range of different artistic styles. Modern art includes Jackson Pollock, the French Impressionists, Chuck Close doing photorealism and everything in between. In the same way modernist is a term for cooking, or a style of cuisine that is meant to be all encompassing.
RS: Do you eat out or cook more?
NM: Well it’s different. For starters, Seattle there are a lot of great restaurants, but there’s not a lot of great modernist restaurants. So when I travel, I like trying to experience other things that I don’t get at home. So great restaurants, ethnic restaurants and other takes on food are also nice to try. So when it’s places like Chicago, it’s places like Alinea, Moto and places like that but also Hot Doug’s and the French fries in duck fat are great. Ha ha ha.
RS: Have you tried horse fat fries? (Not there. I had to make it myself – it was terrible with having to render down the fat itself that had to be sourced, but...)
NM: Use a pressure cooker.
RS: Now I know.
NM: It’s great. What we do with rendering fat is use a pressure cooker and to use Mason jars to hold the fat with an inch of water under.
RS: What is your favourite cuisine? Restaurant? Do you find that having demystified the cooking process through the MC that you are less easily impressed?
NM: It’s not hard to go out to eat. The funny thing is that knowing how I would do it doesn’t mean I know how they would do it. There’s a tendency to over think things “oh yes, they must have done this and this and this and this cuz that’s how I’d do it.” But no actually.
In terms of harder to be impressed. You know those optical illusions? The lines... I don’t know if you know the trick? One of the lines looks longer? You can say we know, but the perception is very hard wired. The food is great, tastes great and it doesn’t really matter knowing how it’s made – it doesn’t affect how you experience it. Once you’ve had lots of great food and you know what it can taste like if it’s no overcooked you become more picky about how it’s overcooked – which is also pretty easy to forgive in a certain context. But it’s about being more aware.
RS: Comments on your dining experiences in Toronto?
NM: When I’m in a different city, I would eat with a local guide because usually when you come to a city, there’s a set of places that the concierge will tell you is the best restaurant in town. There are places that a guide like Zagat will tell you, then there’s a place that a foodie will take you. There is some overlap but not very much.
In Singapore there’s something called makansutra. The name is a sort of take on kamasutra: makan means eating (??) in a local language. And this crazy guy writes all about street food, a guy named Seto, and when I’m in Singapore, he takes me around. You go to like 30 places and at each one you order only one dish. It’s things from all across south east Asia and all the things that are unique there. So if there’s a Seto in every town, that would fantastic, but of course there isn’t.
Unfortunately didn’t have much of a chance [to explore Toronto]. I did have pre-arranged dinners at Splendido and Campagnolo, which was fine, but I ate at one Indian restaurant while I was here called Utsav. We asked one of the concierges, who’s an Indian woman, where to go for lunch. It was very good actually. Typical Indian dishes but we also didn’t want to walk. It was good. I love all food basically.
But sure, I’d love to come back to Toronto and explore a bit.
RS: You have such varied interests that take up your time. How much of it do you use to focus on food and MC?
NM: I’m interested in a lot of things. I try to do it to the best of my abilities.
In the case of paleontology, I write a number of articles on paleontology. Every few years I do one, it’s not very constant. And my contribution to paleontology is smaller, it’s a contribution but it’s not “Oh my god, I’m the world’s best paleontologist.” But it’s fun. And I’m going to keep doing it. My company - development and also inventing – and one of the things we try is to try to invent things that are solutions to problems. We might fail. We have a philosophy that it’s good for us to try to do those things. Again, you can tell me that the world doesn’t work or we shouldn’t be doing it that way.
The cookbook has been interesting because cooking has been something that, up until now, if you interviewed me about all my other things “oh yes, he’s also a really good cook, he once won a barbecue contest...” people would be like oh that’s an interesting little hobby. It’s not like it is a contribution that was important towards cooking, I mean, up until the book. The book was trying to be something that was very important. My relative contribution to cooking may well exceed my relative contribution to paleontology, whatever that means.
RS: They’re all significant contributions, but given all that you’ve accomplished and projects you’ve lined up for the future, what is it that you hope will be your legacy?
NM: Warren Buffet was asked when he was gone what he said was: god that guy was old. [laughs] So the legacy, I’m not at the stage in my life where I can worry about that. I’m hoping that I have a lot more years walking out of here [laughs].
It’s a funny question, because in paleontology, my paleontology friends will say “he done a few interesting things” and I’ll have some little legacy in paleontology but currently it will be little; maybe I’ll come up with something bigger later on. In physics and in other interests of mine, in those areas, yes in some of them, if you interviewed them after I was gone they’d say: “too bad he wasted his time in all that other stuff. Maybe he would be a successful guy if he didn’t waste all his time on all this other crap.” It’s funny because my friends in each area don’t quite understand why I would waste my time from their perspective. Lots of chef friends can’t quite understand why I don’t open a restaurant, because to them that is the best thing you can possibly do. So what’s up with that? They say “surely this book is how you were going to introduce your new restaurant.” Well, not so much. So within cooking I’m hoping the book has an impact. People write to be read; people cook to be eaten. So I really hope the book has a big impact. If it has a big impact, it would help a whole generation of cooks – at home and professionally – will help them get access to techniques that they couldn’t get otherwise. If you interview me 10 years from now, we’ll be able to say, “here’s the restaurants and the trends that have been influenced from the creation of this book.” I hope that there’ll be other books by that date, that I won’t be totally done, but if I was done today, I would hope that this book will be a good contribution, that people would have found it really useful. That’s as much as you could hope for.
RS: Thank you for sharing about the whole process of this project. It’s exciting to see the final product but I can’t imagine how hard those 5 years were when you were working through the trials and tribulations.
NM: There was a lot of work. There are things that don’t go how you’d like; there are those things that turn out really well. It was a great project. It’s terrific to see it now actually accepted by people.
RS: Are you thinking of any more translations of MC?
NM: Two languages: Chinese and Russian. If you look at what countries will hold the most high end restaurants – Canada is not going to quadruple its high end restaurants, you couldn’t. The number of high end restaurants will remain relatively constant (maybe they’ll grow at a few percent per year, but the population is flat and it’s already wealthy/successful country. The same is true for the United States or Europe. China, will have more high end restaurants – like how the United States went from in the 19th century it went from an agricultural country and the wild west and everything else into this urbanized industrial country – and that’s what’s happening in China. If you want to be influential... Plus China has this interesting combination of [having] rich culinary traditions of its own and everybody loves variety. So there will be more French restaurants developing , more sushi... If you lived in Shanghai or Beijing today, or Hong Kong – Hong Kong’s had a western economy for a while – so it’s got great restaurants of every variety. They’re actually selling the books in English in China through our printer. For the very rich people in China it doesn’t matter the books are in English. It’s also not a big influence on the culinary world. The challenge there is finding a way to get it translated in a cost effective way. If you told me that when we translate it to Chinese and I’ll never make any money on it, I’d still do it just because it’ll be a cool thing to do. It actually has many of the same properties that I said about China: it’s another unique situation where they’re growing more of a restaurant culture and growing more of an open society. Spanish is great, because not only do you get Spain but you get all of Latin America. So if you look at parts of the world that are more influential, the parts of the world that are developing are only part of the story. If you look back 20 or 30 years from now, it’s the parts of the world that are growing fast, they will go from having no culinary traditions to high end cuisine – that’s where you’ll have the most influence.
RS: And can we use the metaphor that “they’re really hungry for it” appropriately here?
NM: [Laughs]
RS: Thank you so much for your time.
* Random fact: Although both editions are printed on high quality paper, edition one used paper from Japan and weighed a mere 48-pounds. However, in wake of the tsunami earlier this year, the paper was no longer available and an equally high quality source, but slightly heavier product, from China was used. The ink alone weighs 4-pounds.
** Mhyrvold worked on the project for two years alone before having a team.
1. Party Food Prep, 2. Party Food Prep, 3. Party Food Prep, 4. Party Food Prep, 5. Party Food Prep, 6. Party Food Prep, 7. Halloween Party Food/drinks, 8. Party Food Prep, 9. Party Food Prep, 10. Halloween Party Food/drinks, 11. Party Food Prep, 12. Party Food Prep, 13. Halloween Party Food/drinks, 14. Halloween Party Food/drinks, 15. Halloween Party Food/drinks
Created with fd's Flickr Toys.
The mallard (/ˈmælɑːrd/ or /ˈmælərd/) (Anas platyrhynchos) is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa.
This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae.
The male birds (drakes) have a glossy green head and are grey on their wings and belly, while the females (hens or ducks) have mainly brown-speckled plumage.
Both sexes have an area of white-bordered black or iridescent blue feathers called a speculum on their wings; males especially tend to have blue speculum feathers. The mallard is 50–65 cm (20–26 in) long, of which the body makes up around two-thirds the length. The wingspan is 81–98 cm (32–39 in) and the bill is 4.4 to 6.1 cm (1.7 to 2.4 in) long. It is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks, weighing 0.72–1.58 kg (1.6–3.5 lb). Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes. This species is the main ancestor of most breeds of domesticated ducks.
Stately and striking, Haddo House casts a huge impression from the moment you set eyes on it. Designed in 1732 by William Adam, the house underwent an opulent remodelling in the 1880s. As a result, it has the clean elegance and swooping lines of the Georgian style with a luxurious Victorian interior.
Family portraits trace generations of Gordons, who played a huge part in Scottish history. George Gordon, 1st Earl of Aberdeen was Lord Chancellor of Scotland; the 4th Earl served as Prime Minister. More recently, Haddo was a maternity hospital during World War II – over 1,200 babies were born here.
The house is surrounded by a terrace garden with a lavish herbaceous border and geometric flower beds.
A magnificent avenue of lime trees leads to Haddo Country Park.
Haddo House is a Scottish stately home located near Tarves in Aberdeenshire, approximately 20 miles (32 km) north of Aberdeen (grid reference NJ868347). It has been owned by the National Trust for Scotland since 1979.
The Gordons, who later became the Earls of Aberdeen and Marquesses of Aberdeen, have lived on the site for over 500 years.
Haddo House sits in or near the site of the old Kellie Castle, the family's previous dwelling which was burnt down by the Covenanters and dates from 1732; it was designed by William Adam in the Georgian Palladian style.
The interior of the house though is late Victorian in style, having undergone refurbishment in 1880 by Wright and Mansfield.
Haddo contains a large art collection, including a series of 85 castles by James Giles, an early work by Claude Lorrain and a Madonna believed to be by Raphael.
There are also several portraits of 19th-century British politicians.
A specially-made display cabinet contains the Cabot Commemorative State Dinner Service. The hand-painted porcelain service with twenty-four settings for an eight-course meal was made by members of the Woman's Art Association of Canada in 1897.
The Canadian government declined to pay the CDN$1,000 asking price. It was purchased privately by members of the House and Senate of Canada and presented on 12 June 1898 to Lady Aberdeen on the occasion of her husband ending his term as Governor-General of Canada.
John Smith did the design work for the kitchens and peripheral buildings in 1843. He returned there in 1845 and built the gate houses at the North and South entrances. Constructed in a rough coarse granite, these single storey buildings are in a Tudor style.
Haddo House's most notable former resident was George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, the British prime minister from 1852–1855.
Another notable period in its history was during WW2 when the house became a maternity hospital for the evacuated mothers of Glasgow.
Nearly 1200 babies were born at Haddo Emergency Hospital, as it was known, and many still come back to visit known affectionately as the Haddo Babies.
The house has a small chapel attached. In the grounds is a theatre, Haddo House Hall, and rehearsal rooms, known as the Peatyards. Haddo House Choral & Operatic Society (HHCOS), a large and vibrant choral society formed in 1945, has its operations base there.
For over sixty years it has been noted for its annual musical and operatic productions.
The mallard (/ˈmælɑːrd/ or /ˈmælərd/) (Anas platyrhynchos) is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa.
This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae.
The male birds (drakes) have a glossy green head and are grey on their wings and belly, while the females (hens or ducks) have mainly brown-speckled plumage.
Both sexes have an area of white-bordered black or iridescent blue feathers called a speculum on their wings; males especially tend to have blue speculum feathers. The mallard is 50–65 cm (20–26 in) long, of which the body makes up around two-thirds the length. The wingspan is 81–98 cm (32–39 in) and the bill is 4.4 to 6.1 cm (1.7 to 2.4 in) long. It is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks, weighing 0.72–1.58 kg (1.6–3.5 lb). Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes. This species is the main ancestor of most breeds of domesticated ducks.
Stately and striking, Haddo House casts a huge impression from the moment you set eyes on it. Designed in 1732 by William Adam, the house underwent an opulent remodelling in the 1880s. As a result, it has the clean elegance and swooping lines of the Georgian style with a luxurious Victorian interior.
Family portraits trace generations of Gordons, who played a huge part in Scottish history. George Gordon, 1st Earl of Aberdeen was Lord Chancellor of Scotland; the 4th Earl served as Prime Minister. More recently, Haddo was a maternity hospital during World War II – over 1,200 babies were born here.
The house is surrounded by a terrace garden with a lavish herbaceous border and geometric flower beds.
A magnificent avenue of lime trees leads to Haddo Country Park.
Haddo House is a Scottish stately home located near Tarves in Aberdeenshire, approximately 20 miles (32 km) north of Aberdeen (grid reference NJ868347). It has been owned by the National Trust for Scotland since 1979.
The Gordons, who later became the Earls of Aberdeen and Marquesses of Aberdeen, have lived on the site for over 500 years.
Haddo House sits in or near the site of the old Kellie Castle, the family's previous dwelling which was burnt down by the Covenanters and dates from 1732; it was designed by William Adam in the Georgian Palladian style.
The interior of the house though is late Victorian in style, having undergone refurbishment in 1880 by Wright and Mansfield.
Haddo contains a large art collection, including a series of 85 castles by James Giles, an early work by Claude Lorrain and a Madonna believed to be by Raphael.
There are also several portraits of 19th-century British politicians.
A specially-made display cabinet contains the Cabot Commemorative State Dinner Service. The hand-painted porcelain service with twenty-four settings for an eight-course meal was made by members of the Woman's Art Association of Canada in 1897.
The Canadian government declined to pay the CDN$1,000 asking price. It was purchased privately by members of the House and Senate of Canada and presented on 12 June 1898 to Lady Aberdeen on the occasion of her husband ending his term as Governor-General of Canada.
John Smith did the design work for the kitchens and peripheral buildings in 1843. He returned there in 1845 and built the gate houses at the North and South entrances. Constructed in a rough coarse granite, these single storey buildings are in a Tudor style.
Haddo House's most notable former resident was George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, the British prime minister from 1852–1855.
Another notable period in its history was during WW2 when the house became a maternity hospital for the evacuated mothers of Glasgow.
Nearly 1200 babies were born at Haddo Emergency Hospital, as it was known, and many still come back to visit known affectionately as the Haddo Babies.
The house has a small chapel attached. In the grounds is a theatre, Haddo House Hall, and rehearsal rooms, known as the Peatyards. Haddo House Choral & Operatic Society (HHCOS), a large and vibrant choral society formed in 1945, has its operations base there.
For over sixty years it has been noted for its annual musical and operatic productions.
Large Atlantic Noble Triton Trumpet shell (The description Charonia Nobilis does not actually exist) about a foot long. I'm giving serious consideration to turning this shell into a horn. As a teenager I dabbled at playing the French horn, a one valve bugle in a Boy Scout/Legion marching band and a trumpet in high school. This would have a totally different aesthetic.
www.flickr.com/photos/21728045@N08/32538981152/in/photoli...
www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/148021776...
www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/147468078...
www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/147445304...
SOME BASICS ON SHELL TRUMPETS
AND SOME VERY BASICS ON HOW TO MAKE THEM
By Mitchell Clark © 1996
Two views of an end-blown shell trumpet made by the author from a Cassis cornuta ("horned helmet"); length 8 1/4"; pitch B3 (open) or A3 (hand-stopped).
At the request of the editor of Experimental Musical Instruments, to whom I once casually mentioned that I had made a few shell trumpets, I will write something about the process of making such an instrument. But, to the possible disappointment of the editor, there's not an awful lot for me to say about their construction, as the simple forms of shell trumpets are quite easy to make. So, in the style of an entry in a cookbook where the author gives lots of history, lore, and anecdotes, and then finally gets down to the recipe, somewhere in what follows are some basic instructions for making shell trumpets. Endnotes - often referring to illustrations which may be consulted in other sources - are included, and contribute additional texture.
I'll start by saying that when I was young, I knew about shell trumpets but obviously did not quite understand the principle of how they worked. I thought that no alteration was made to a conch's shell, which I thought was very beautiful and that it would be a shame to deface it. Rather, it seemed that getting the shell to sound was a matter simply of blowing very, very, very hard. Fortunately I did not rupture any blood vessels trying out this theory.1
But the shell trumpet (an instrument in the domain of study of the organologist) has indeed been altered from the animal's natural shell (a natural object in the domain of study of the conchologist) in such a way that would make life uncomfortable for the actual mollusk itself (an animal in the domain of study of the malacologist) - that is, a hole's been poked in the shell. A shell trumpet will obviously have to made after the mollusk has (willingly or unwillingly) vacated.
There are two basic places this hole may be placed, and so there are two basic approaches that can be taken for making a conch shell into a shell trumpet. A hole is made either at the apex (the tip of the spire) of the shell, or, alternatively, in one of the whorls to the side of the spire. The mouth hole may be at the apex if the spire is shallow, as on a Strombus gigas ("queen conch" or "pink conch," common in the Caribbean), 2 Cassis cornuta ("horned helmet," found in the Indo-Pacific region), or Cassis tuberosa ("king helmet," found in the Caribbean). The mouth hole may be on the side of the spire if the spire is more steep, as on a Charonia tritonis ("Triton's trumpet," distributed throughout most of the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans). In some cases the hole itself forms the mouth hole; in others, a mouthpiece is added. Mouthpieces seem to be a matter of what tradition has evolved, as sometimes the same species of shell may be found with or without a mouthpiece. For instance, a variety of approaches will be found with Charonia tritonis. In Polynesia, a mouth hole cut into the side of the spire is the norm. 3 Occasionally a side-blown tritonis will have a mouthpiece added, as found in the Marquesas Islands; 4 this appears to be a rare arrangement. Concerning end-blown tritonis, on the Hawaiian pu 5 and on the Korean na, 6 a mouth hole is cut into the apex. On the Japanese hora, the tritonis (called horagai) is given a mouthpiece, placed at the apex. 7 Other shells used for trumpets usually have the hole in the apex, with a mouthpiece or (perhaps more commonly) without.
The qualities of sounds which shell trumpets can produce are varied, and also layered in the meanings and responses such sounds evoke. As children we learn of one of the poetic associations of shells - that if you hold a conch shell to your ear, you will hear (however far away from the coastline you may be) the sound of the sea. 8 Yes, perhaps it is indeed the air column enclosed by the shell filtering the ambient level of noise to create a faint roaring sound. But the association of shells with water, and the sea especially, is also at the basis of the many of the ceremonial uses of shell trumpets around the world. Shell trumpets have often been used at great distances from the sea, and this has contributed to the sacredness of their sounds. Thus the hearing the of sea in a shell may be a vestige of these older, profound associations. Shell trumpets produce a profound sound in every sense of the word - there is a sense of the sound coming from the deep past. This is both true as regards the actual antiquity of the use of shell trumpets, which dates to the Neolithic era, 9 and in the very shell itself. The apex of a univalve gastropod such as a conch or a snail is the oldest part of the shell (the place where the young animal started growing): in blowing a shell trumpet the sound is passing from the oldest place to the youngest - from the past towards the present.
Concerning this antiquity of the use of shell trumpets, the etymologist Eric Partridge puts forth the idea that the word "conch" may be of echoic - that is, onomatopoeic - origin. 10 Echoic, I suppose, of the sound of the blast of a shell trumpet, and thus - given the early Greek roots of the work "conch" - indicating the great antiquity of their use. A common term applied in a number of parts of Polynesia to the shell trumpet - pu - would certainly also seem, in its own way, to be echoic.
The most common use of shell trumpets in many parts of the world - and they have a remarkably wide distribution - is as a signaling device. A shell trumpet may announce curfew in Samoa, or announce that fresh fish is for sale in Fiji, or may serve as a foghorn on the Mediterranean. The shell trumpet often has a magical role in relation to weather. It may be used on the one hand be used to calm rough seas, or on the other to summon wind when seas are becalmed. 11 Shell trumpets are also used in musical contexts, most often in conjunction with ritual. The Indian shanka has held a place in the Hindu religion for millennia. There it may be used as a ritual vessel as well as a trumpet. 12 The shanka is also of significance in Buddhism, where, besides its musical uses, it figures importantly into Buddhist iconography. Befitting their role in Tibetan ritual music, where they are called dung-dkar, shell trumpets made from shanka receive detailed decoration, with carving on the surface of the shell itself and with added ornamentation in metal and semi-precious stone. 13 Shell trumpets were also important ritual instruments in Pre-Columbian South and Central America and in Minoan Crete. In these latter areas, skeuomorphic reproductions ("the substitution of products of craftsmanship for components or objects of natural origin") of shell trumpets, in ceramic and stone, are found archaeologically. The details of their exact purposes remain a mystery. 14 Generally a shell trumpet is used to produce one note; harmonics are possible but seldom utilized. One exception is the Japanese hora, where three, sometimes even four, pitches of the harmonic series may be employed. 15 On the end-blown Fijian shell trumpet made from the Bursa bubo ("giant frog shell"), there is a fingerhole which will allow for a whole-tone change in pitch. 16 Shell trumpets with several fingerholes have also been explored. 17 Occasionally pitch is modified by the player inserting his or her hand into the aperture. Although shell trumpets would seem to lend themselves to being played in a musical context in homogenous ensembles, along the lines of ensembles of panpipes and stamping tubes in Oceania (particularly Melanesia), such an approach is actually very rare. Tonga (in Polynesia) is the only place where conch ensembles have been found, and then only in the more remote areas (some of the northern islands) and only in a few musical contexts (for recreation and for cricket matches). 18 In contemporary music and jazz, however, ensembles of shell trumpets have been used by trombonists Stuart Dempster and Steve Turre.
Now, to get to work. I've made a few shell trumpets with the mouth-hole at the apex. A simple basic recipe is:
Ingredients:
The shell of a large univalve gastropod
A file
Jeweler's files for finishing work (optional)
Procedure:
File off the tip of the spire.
Smooth out the perimeter of the hole (optional).
That's it. But to be more specific: from my experience, for making a shell trumpet it seems that a conch of some size - something like seven inches or greater in length - is needed. My attempt at making an instrument with the shell of a young Strombus gigas (perhaps 5-6 inches long) did not work out: I just couldn't get a sound out of the thing. Perhaps a smaller shell such as that might work with a mouthpiece. I've made end-blown trumpets from Cassis cornuta (my shell of choice; see photos above), Cassis tuberosa, and adult Strombus gigas. My construction approach with the Cassis has been to file off the tip with an 8" mill bastard file and a lot of elbow grease, getting it to the point where the opening is about 5/8" in diameter. With the jeweler's files, I'll smooth down the insides of the opening. For a Strombus gigas, which has a steeper spire, I first cut off an inch or so of the tip with a saw, and then proceeded as with the Cassis.
It is certainly possible to get the job done more quickly. A friend once made a trumpet from a Strombus gigas by forcibly breaking off the tip - he's a percussionist - with little or no filing. In this case, it appears that the irregularities of the edges of the mouth-hole allowed for a more pronounced array of upper partials to the shell trumpet's tone. To remove the tip of a Strombus gigas, D.Z. Crookes (describing the process in his "How to make a shelly hautbois") supported the shell's tip "on an anvil, and nipped it off with a cold chisel," later carving a "half-civilized" mouthpiece. 19 I suppose one could also use a power grinder or sander to quickly get through the early stage on a Cassis, for instance, but I think a couple of hours or so of manual filing is not too big a price to pay (however, see photo below). Of course, being physically involved with the stages of the manufacture of a shell trumpet, as with any musical instrument, increases one's connection with the instrument and its sounds.
As regards side-blown shell trumpets, I've made one, from a Charonia tritonis (see photo below). For such a shell, a basic recipe could be:
Ingredients:
The shell of a large conch with a steep spire, especially a Charonia tritonis
A drill
Jeweler's files for expanding the hole and for finishing work
Procedure:
Drill a small hole into the side of the spire.
Expand the size of the hole and smooth out the edges.
Again, a little more detail. I placed the hole in the second whorl out from, and on the same side of the spire as, the aperture. With this arrangement the aperture faces backwards from the player when the trumpet is played. I used photographs of side-blown Charonia tritonis as my guide. 20 I used a drill bit of about l/8" diameter to get the hole started and then followed with a 1/4" bit. I expanded the hole to about 5/8" with a half-round jeweler's file. A larger rat-tail file would also be possible (although one needs to be careful of a bulkier tool damaging the interior of the shell), before following up with the jeweler's file.
Although I've made a few shell trumpets, I have not yet made musical use of them in any concerted way. I do have a piece - forthcoming in my series of Anthems for ensembles of "peacefully co-existing" sustained sounds - for a plurality of shell trumpets and pre-recorded tape. Also, when you've got a shell trumpet around, blowing it every once in a while does impress neighbors and passers-by alike.
Again, these are the most basic of recipes. I look forward to other writers who have more background in the individual traditions of these instruments, and who are more acquainted with the acoustics and detailed construction, 21 to contribute further on the subject of these fascinating instruments.
ENDNOTES
1. Despite the fact that a large conch does need to be modified to make a trumpet, a small snail shell can be used, unmodified, as a whistle. An intact snail shell is essentially a stopped pipe, and if the aperture is of an appropriate size - so the player is able to create an embouchure - the shell can be an effective whistle. Unaltered large conch shells filled with water were used for their gurgling sounds by John Cage in his pieces Inlets (1977, which also makes use of a shell trumpet) and Two3 (1991, which also includes a Japanese shô reed organ). A single such large water-filled conch was used by the present author in his "concerning an aspect..." (1988). Return to text
2. In general usage, the word "conch" is used to describe large spiral univalve gastropods even when it is not referring to what is, strictly speaking, a conch (the "true conchs" are members of the genus Strombus). This seems to be especially true in relation to shell trumpets, where the term "conch trumpet" is used quite freely. Return to text
3. See Richard M. Moyle, Polynesian Sound-producing Instruments (Princes Risborough, England: Shire Publications, 1990), 39 and figure 25, which shows several side-blown tritonis being played in Tonga. Return to text
4. Richard M. Moyle, Polynesian Sound-producing Instruments, 39 and lower portion of figure 23. Return to text
5. Te Rangi Hiroa (Peter H. Buck), Arts and Crafts of Hawaii, IX: Musical Instruments (Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 1957, reprinted 1964), figure 256a. Return to text
6. See Chang Sa-hun, Uri yet Akki ("Our Traditional Musical Instruments"; Seoul: Daewonsa, 1990), 31. Return to text
7. See Hajime Fukui, "The Hora (Conch Trumpet) of Japan" in Galpin Society Journal 47 (1994): 47-62, where several photographs and a diagram of the mouthpiece are shown. For a full-size color photograph of a hora, see Jane Fearer Safer and Frances McLaughlin Gill, Spirals from the Sea: An Anthropological look at Shells (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1982), 174-5. Concerning the hora, one of its less-documented uses is in a rite called Shunie associated with the Tôdai-ji Temple in Nara (see Hajime Fukui's essay, 52). A shell-trumpet ensemble portion of the Shunie can be heard on the album Harmony of Japanese Music, mentioned in the attached discography. Return to text
8. Note that terminology relating to the human ear is rich in shell imagery. The cochlea (a Latin word derived from the Greek kokhlos, land snail) is the spiral, shell-shaped portion of the inner ear which transmits the signals to the brain which are interpreted as sound. As a word referring to a shell-like structure, concha (from the Greek konkhe - a shell-bearing mollusk in general - which, via Latin, is the ancestral form of "conch") is a term used to describe the human external ear, also known as pinna. And pinna, from the Latin word for "wing" or "feather," is also the name for a genus of large - and wing- or feather-shaped - bivalve mollusks (family Pinnidae). Return to text
9. John M. Schechter and Mervyn McLean, "Conch-shell trumpet" in Stanley Sadie, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments (London: Macmillan. 1954), I:461. Note that it is conjectured that the earliest use of the instrument was as a voice modifier - a megaphone of sorts. Return to text
10. Eric Partridge, Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English (2nd edition, New York: MacMillan, 1959), 114. Note especially one Middle English spelling, conk. Return to text
11. A recorded example of the former, from Chuuk, Micronesia, is included on the album Spirit of Micronesia, mentioned in the attached discography. The latter is mentioned in the entry for the shell trumpet ntuantuangi, of the Poso Toradja of Celebes, in Sibyl Marcuse, Musical Instruments: A Comprehensive Dictionary (2nd edition, New York & London: W.W. Norton & Co., 1975), 368. Return to text
12. Note that the Sanskrit word shanka (which may be romanized in various ways, with or without diacritics; the English common name for the shell is "chank") does share the same Indo-European root as konkhe, and ultimately, "conch." The Latin scientific name for the shanka is Turbinella pyrum. Return to text
13. See Safer and Gill, Spirals from the Sea, 176-7, for two views of a specimen dated 1400. Return to text
14. Jeremy Montagu, "The conch in prehistory: pottery, stone and natural" in World Archaeology 12/3 (1981): 273-9, which focuses on these shell-trumpet skeuomorphs. Return to text
15. Hajime Fukui "The Hora (Conch Trumpet) of Japan," 51-2. Return to text
16. Moyle, Polynesian Sound-producing Instruments, 39 and figure 24. Return to text
17. See D.Z. Crookes, "How to make a shelly hautbois" in FoMRHI Quarterly 80 (July 1995): 43, where he experiments with up to seven (?) fingerholes on Strombus gigas. Return to text
18. Richard M. Moyle, "Conch Ensemble: Tonga's Unique Contribution to Polynesian Organology" in Galpin Society Journal 28 (1975): 98-106. Also, his Polynesian Sound-producing Instruments, 41-2 and figure 25. Ensembles of three to seven, or more, side-blown Charonia tritonis are used. Return to text
19. Crookes, "How to make a shelly hautbois," 43. Return to text
20. For instance, Eric Metzgar, Arts of Micronesia (Long Beach, Calif.: FHP Hippodrome Gallery, 1987 {exhibition catalogue}), figure G, and Safer and Gill, Spirals from the Sea, 168. Return to text
21. See Montagu, "The conch in prehistory: pottery, stone and natural," 274-5, for a brief discussion of shell-trumpet acoustics which outlines some of the basic issues. Concerning shell-trumpet construction, note that Hajime Fukui's "The Hora (Conch Trumpet) of Japan" goes into a great amount of detail concerning making this particular instrument. Return to text
SOME SHELL TRUMPET DISCOGRAPHY
Following is a handful of recordings including shell trumpets. Occasionally, recordings of shell trumpets will appear on collections of music from Oceania. An example is Spirit of Micronesia (Saydisc CD-SDL 414), which includes a conche (note this alternate spelling) introducing two chants (track 20) and a conche used for warding off storm clouds (track 22; a photo on page 20 of the booklet shows a player of a trumpet made from a Cassis species). Though brief, this latter track beautifully captures, against a backdrop of storm waves, the shell trumpet's evocative qualities. Pan Records' Fa'a-Samoa: The Samoan way... between conch shell and disco (PAN 2066CD) includes a recording (track 1) of a conch-shell pu being used to announce curfew; on track 13, an animal horn used for the same purpose is also called pu. (The "disco" of the title is actually a brass band performance.) Another album on Pan, Tuvalu: A Polynesian Atoll Society (PAN 2055CD), has an impressive photograph of a shell-trumpet player on the cover, but does not include any shell-trumpet recordings.
A Japanese Buddhist ritual-music use of shell trumpets - as part of O-Mizu Tori ("a water-drawing rite") of the Shunie rite at Tôdai-ji Temple, Nara - may be heard on Harmony of Japanese Music (King Records [Japan] KICH 2021).
Steve Turre's Sanctified Shells (Antilles 314 514 186-2) and Stuart Dempster's Underground Overlays from the Cistern Chapel (New Albion NA076) include some contemporary creative uses of shell trumpets in ensemble. Colin Offord's Pacific Sound (Move Records [Australia] MD 3 105) makes use of shell trumpets in ensemble with instruments of his own construction. Together with other sound-makers made of shells, a shell trumpet may be heard on the track "Sea Language" on The Art of Primitive Sound's Musical Instruments from Prehistory (Hic Sunt Leones [Italy] HSL 003).
Baoding Balls
An on-line description of one:
This Japanese vintage Samurai Horagai is a trumpet shell of yoroi, or armour. It is about 50 years old, and is like the real thing used during the age of the Samurai. It is made from a real trumpet shell like the shells we have had before and found in many oceans including the Pacific, this one being from Japan. A mouth piece had been attached and it can be used just like in the old days when it was used to communicate during wars. Horagai was used as a command and signal of the old times during Samurai battles. Now it is used for decorating armour.
The mallard is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurosiberia, and North Africa and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa.
This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae. The male birds (drakes) have a glossy green head and are grey on their wings and belly, while the females (hens or ducks) have mainly brown-speckled plumage. Both sexes have an area of white-bordered black or iridescent blue feathers called a speculum on their wings; males especially tend to have blue speculum feathers.
The mallard is 50–65 cm long, of which the body makes up around two-thirds the length. The wingspan is 81–98 cm and the bill is 4.4 to 6.1 cm long. It is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks, weighing 0.72–1.58 kg.
Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes. This species is the main ancestor of most breeds of domesticated ducks.
The mallard (/ˈmælɑrd/ or /ˈmælərd/) or wild duck (Anas platyrhynchos) is a dabbling duck which breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, the Falkland Islands and South Africa.[2] This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae.
The male birds (drakes) have a glossy green head and are grey on wings and belly, while the females have mainly brown-speckled plumage. Both genders have an area of white-bordered black speculum feathers which commonly also include irridescent blue feathers especially among males. Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes. This species is the ancestor of most breeds of domestic ducks.[3]
Taxonomy and evolution
The mallard was one of the many bird species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th-century work, Systema Naturae, and still bears its original binomial name.[4]
The name mallard is derived from the Old French malart or mallart "wild drake", although its ultimate derivation is unclear. It may be related to (or at least influenced by) an Old High German masculine proper name Madelhart, clues lying in the alternate English forms "maudelard" or "mawdelard".[5] Masle (male) has also been proposed as an influence.[6] Mallards frequently interbreed with their closest relatives in the genus Anas, such as the American black duck, and also with species more distantly related, such as the northern pintail, leading to various hybrids that may be fully fertile.[7] This is quite unusual among such different species, and apparently is because the mallard evolved very rapidly and recently, during the Late Pleistocene. The distinct lineages of this radiation are usually kept separate due to non-overlapping ranges and behavioural cues, but are still not fully genetically incompatible.[8] Mallards and their domesticated conspecifics are also fully interfertile.
The genome of Anas platyrhynchos was sequenced in 2013.[9]
Mallards appear to be closer to their Indo-Pacific relatives than to their American ones judging from biogeography. Considering mitochondrial DNA D-loop sequence data, they may have evolved in the general area of Siberia; mallard bones rather abruptly appear in food remains of ancient humans and other deposits of fossil bones in Europe, without a good candidate for a local predecessor species.[10] The large ice age palaeosubspecies which made up at least the European and west Asian populations during the Pleistocene has been named Anas platyrhynchos palaeoboschas.[citation needed]
In their mitochondrial DNA, mallards are differentiated between North America and Eurasia,[11] however, in the nuclear genome there is a particular lack of genetic structure.[12] Haplotypes typical of American mallard relatives and spotbills can be found in mallards around the Bering Sea.[13] The Aleutian Islands hold a population of mallards that appear to be evolving towards a subspecies, as gene flow with other populations is very limited.[10]
The size of the mallard varies clinally, and birds from Greenland, although larger than birds further south, have smaller bills and are stockier. They are sometimes separated as subspecies, the Greenland mallard (A. p. conboschas).[citation needed]
Description
The mallard is a medium-sized waterfowl species although is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks. It is 50–65 cm (20–26 in) long (of which the body makes up around two-thirds), has a wingspan of 81–98 cm (32–39 in),[14] and weighs 0.72–1.58 kg (1.6–3.5 lb).[15][16] Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 25.7 to 30.6 cm (10.1 to 12.0 in), the bill is 4.4 to 6.1 cm (1.7 to 2.4 in) and the tarsus is 4.1 to 4.8 cm (1.6 to 1.9 in).[17]
The breeding male mallard is unmistakable, with a glossy bottle-green head and white collar which demarcates the head from the purple-tinged brown breast, grey brown wings, and a pale grey belly. The rear of the male is black, with the dark tail having white borders.[18] The bill of the male is a yellowish orange tipped with black while that of the female is generally darker ranging from black to mottled orange. The female mallard is predominantly mottled with each individual feather showing sharp contrast from buff to very dark brown, a coloration shared by most female dabbling ducks, and has buff cheeks, eyebrow, throat and neck with a darker crown and eye-stripe.[18]
Owing to their highly 'malleable' genetic code, Mallards can display a large amount of variation, as seen here with this female, who displays faded or 'apricot' plumage.
Both male and female mallards have distinct iridescent purple blue speculum feathers edged with white, prominent in flight or at rest, though temporarily shed during the annual summer moult. Upon hatching, the plumage colouring of the duckling is yellow on the underside and face (with streaks by the eyes) and black on the backside (with some yellow spots) all the way to the top and back of the head. Its legs and bill are also black. As it nears a month in age, the duckling's plumage will start becoming drab, looking more like the female (though its plumage is more streaked) and its legs will lose their dark grey colouring.[18] Two months after hatching, the fledgling period has ended and the duckling is now a juvenile. Between three to four months of age, the juvenile can finally begin flying as its wings are fully developed for flight (which can be confirmed by the sight of purple speculum feathers). Its bill will soon lose its dark grey colouring and its sex can finally be distinguished visually by three factors. The bill colouring is yellow in males, black and orange for females. The breast feathers are reddish-brown for males, brown for females. The centre tail feather is curled for males (called a drake feather), straight for females.[citation needed]
During the final period of maturity leading up to adulthood (6–10 months of age), the plumage of female juveniles remains the same while the plumage of male juveniles slowly changes to its characteristic colours.[citation needed] This plumage change also applies to adult mallard males when they transition in and out of their non-breeding eclipse plumage at the beginning and the end of the summer moulting period. The adulthood age for mallards is 14 months and the average life expectancy is 3 years, but they can live to twenty.[19]
Several species of duck have brown-plumaged females which can be confused with the female mallard. The female gadwall (A. strepera) has an orange-lined bill, white belly, black and white speculum which is seen as a white square on the wings in flight, and is a smaller bird.[18] More similar to the female mallard in North America are the American black duck (A. rubripes), which is notably darker hued in both sexes than the mallard, and the mottled duck (A. fulvigula), which is somewhat darker than the female mallard, with no white edge on the speculum and slightly different bare-part colouration.
In captivity, domestic ducks come in wild-type plumages, white, and other colours. Most of these colour variants are also known in domestic mallards not bred as livestock, but kept as pets, aviary birds, etc., where they are rare but increasing in availability.
A noisy species, the male has a nasal call, and a high-pitched whistle, while the female has a deeper quack stereotypically associated with ducks.[20][21]
The mallard is a rare example of both Allen's Rule and Bergmann's Rule in birds. Bergmann's Rule, which states that polar forms tend to be larger than related ones from warmer climates, has numerous examples in birds. Allen's Rule says that appendages like ears tend to be smaller in polar forms to minimize heat loss, and larger in tropical and desert equivalents to facilitate heat diffusion, and that the polar taxa are stockier overall. Examples of this rule in birds are rare, as they lack external ears. However, the bill of ducks is very well supplied with blood vessels and is vulnerable to cold.[citation needed]
Due to the malleability of the mallard's genetic code, which gives it its vast interbreeding capability, mutations in the genes that decide plumage colour are very common and have resulted in a wide variety of hybrids such as Brewer's duck (mallard × gadwall, Anas strepera).[22]
Distribution and habitat
The mallard is widely distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, North America from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, and across Eurasia, from Iceland and southern Greenland and parts of Morocco (North Africa) in the west, Scandinavia to the north, and to Siberia, Japan,and South Korea, in the east, Australia and New Zealand in the Southern hemisphere.[14] It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south. For example, in North America, it winters south to Mexico, but also regularly strays into Central America and the Caribbean between September and May.[23]
The mallard inhabits a wide range of habitat and climates, from Arctic tundra to subtropical regions. It is found in both fresh- and salt-water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open sea within sight of the coastline. Water depths of less than 1 metre (3.3 ft) are preferred, birds avoiding areas more than a few metres deep. They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation
Behaviour
Feeding
The mallard is omnivorous and very flexible in its foods choice. Its diet may vary based on several factors, including the stage of the breeding cycle, short-term variations in available food, nutrient availability, and inter and intraspecific competition.[24] The majority of the mallard's diet seems to be made up of gastropods, invertebrates (including beetles, flies, lepidopterans, dragonflies, and caddisflies), crustaceans, worms, many varieties of seeds and plant matter, and roots and tubers. During the breeding season, male birds were recorded to have eaten 37.6% animal matter and 62.4% plant matter, most notably Echinochloa crus-galli, and nonlaying females ate 37.0% animal matter and 63.0% plant matter, while laying females ate 71.9% animal matter and only 28.1% plant matter.[25] Plants generally make up a larger part of the bird's diet, especially during autumn migration and in the winter.[26][27]
It usually feeds by dabbling for plant food or grazing; there are reports of it eating frogs. It usually nests on a river bank, but not always near water. It is highly gregarious outside of the breeding season and forms large flocks, which are known as sords.[28]
Breeding
Mallards usually form pairs (in October and November in the Northern hemisphere) only until the female lays eggs at the start of nesting season which is around the beginning of spring, at which time she is left by the male who joins up with other males to await the moulting period which begins in June (in the Northern hemisphere). During the brief time before this, however, the males are still sexually potent and some of them either remain on standby to sire replacement clutches (for female Mallards that have lost or abandoned their previous clutch) or forcibly mate with females that appear to be isolated or unattached regardless of their species and whether or not they have a brood of ducklings.
The nesting period can be very stressful for the female since she lays more than half her body weight in eggs. She requires a lot of rest and a feeding/loafing area that is safe from predators. When seeking out a suitable nesting site, the female's preferences are areas that are well concealed, inaccessible to ground predators, or have few predators nearby. This can include nesting sites in urban areas such as roof gardens, enclosed courtyards, and flower boxes on window ledges and balconies more than one story up, which the ducklings cannot leave safely without human intervention. The clutch is 8–13 eggs, which are incubated for 27–28 days to hatching with 50–60 days to fledgling. The ducklings are precocial and fully capable of swimming as soon as they hatch. However, filial imprinting compels them to instinctively stay near the mother not only for warmth and protection but also to learn about and remember their habitat as well as how and where to forage for food. When ducklings mature into flight-capable juveniles, they learn about and remember their traditional migratory routes (unless they are born and raised in captivity). After this, the juveniles and the mother may either part or remain together until the breeding season arrives.[citation needed]
When they pair off with mating partners, often one or several drakes end up left out. This group sometimes targets an isolated female duck, even one of a different species, and proceeds to chase and peck at her until she weakens, at which point the males take turns copulating with the female. Lebret (1961) calls this behaviour "Attempted Rape Flight" and Cramp & Simmons (1977) speak of "rape-intent flights". Male mallards also occasionally chase other male ducks of a different species, and even each other, in the same way. In one documented case of "homosexual necrophilia", a male mallard copulated with another male he was chasing after the chased male died upon flying into a glass window.[29] This paper was awarded with an Ig Nobel Prize in 2003.[30]
Mallards are opportunistically targeted by brood parasites, occasionally having eggs laid in their nests by Redheads, ruddy ducks, lesser scaup, gadwalls, northern shovelers, northern pintails, cinnamon teal, common goldeneyes, and other mallards. These eggs are generally accepted when they resemble the eggs of the host mallard, although the hen may attempt to eject them or even abandon the nest if parasitism occurs during egg laying.[31] Mallards of all ages (but especially young ones) and in all locations must contend with a wide diversity of predators including raptors, mustelids, corvids, snakes, raccoons, opossums, skunks, turtles, large fish and felids and canids, including domesticated ones.[32] The most prolific natural predators of adult mallards are red foxes (which most often pick off brooding females) and the faster or larger birds of prey, i.e. peregrine falcons or Haliaeetus eagles.[33][34] In North America, adult mallards face no fewer than 15 species of birds of prey, from hen harriers and short-eared owls (both smaller than a mallard) to huge bald and golden eagles, and about a dozen species of mammalian predator, not counting several more avian and mammalian predators who threaten eggs and nestlings.[31]
Mallards are also preyed upon occasionally by 'unorthodox' species, such as the Grey heron (Ardea cinerea), European herring gull (Larus argentatus) and the Northern pike (Esox lucius).
Conservation
Unlike many waterfowl, mallards have benefited from human alterations to the world. They are very adaptable, being able to live and even thrive in urban areas which may have supported more localized, sensitive species of waterfowl before development. The release of feral mallards in areas where they are not native sometimes creates problems through interbreeding with indigenous waterfowl. These non-migratory mallards interbreed with indigenous wild ducks from local populations of closely related species through genetic pollution by producing fertile offspring. Complete hybridization of various species of wild ducks gene pools could result in the extinction of many indigenous waterfowl. The wild mallard itself is the ancestor of most domestic ducks and its naturally evolved wild gene pool gets genetically polluted in turn by the domesticated and feral populations.[35][36][37]
The mallard is considered an invasive species in New Zealand.[14] There, and elsewhere, mallards are spreading with increasing urbanization and hybridizing with local relatives.[38] Over time, a continuum of hybrids ranging between almost typical examples of either species will develop; the speciation process beginning to reverse itself.[39] This has created conservation concerns for relatives of the mallard, such as the Hawaiian duck,[38][40] the A. s. superciliosa subspecies of the Pacific black duck,[38][41][42][43] the American black duck,[38][44][45][46] the mottled duck,[38][47][48] Meller's duck,[49] the yellow-billed duck,[39] and the Mexican duck,[38][48] in the latter case even leading to a dispute whether these birds should be considered a species[50] (and thus entitled to more conservation research and funding) or included in the mallard.
The availability of mallards, mallard ducklings, and fertilized mallard eggs for public sale and private ownership, either as livestock or as pets, is currently legal in the United States except for the state of Florida which has currently banned domestic ownership of mallards. This is to prevent hybridisation with the native mottled duck.[51]
Mallards are also causing severe "genetic pollution" of South Africa's biodiversity by breeding with endemic ducks, although the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies to the mallard. The hybrids of mallards and the yellow-billed duck are fertile and can produce more hybrid offspring. If this continues, only hybrids will occur and in the long term this will result in the extinction of various indigenous waterfowl. The mallard duck can cross breed with 63 other species and is posing a severe threat to the genetic integrity of indigenous waterfowl. Mallards and their hybrids compete with indigenous birds for resources such as food, nest sites and roosting sites.[37]
The Eastern or Chinese spot-billed duck is currently introgressing into the mallard populations of the Primorsky Krai, possibly due to habitat changes from global warming.[13] The Mariana mallard was a resident allopatric population—in most respects a good species—apparently initially derived from mallard-Pacific black duck hybrids;[52] unfortunately, it became extinct in the late twentieth century.[53]
The Laysan duck is an insular relative of the mallard with a very small and fluctuating population. Mallards sometimes arrive on its island home during migration, and can be expected to occasionally have remained and hybridized with Laysan ducks as long as these species have existed. But these hybrids are less well adapted to the peculiar ecological conditions of Laysan Island than the local ducks, and thus have lower fitness, and furthermore, there were—apart from a brief time in the early 20th century when the Laysan duck was almost extinct—always many more Laysan ducks than stray mallards. Thus, in this case, the hybrid lineages would rapidly fail.[citation needed]
In the cases mentioned above, however, ecological changes and hunting have led to a decline of local species; for example, the New Zealand grey duck population declined drastically due to overhunting in the mid-20th century.[43] Hybrid offspring of Hawaiian ducks seem to be less well-adapted to native habitat, and utilizing them in reintroduction projects apparently reduces success.[38][54] In summary, the problems of mallards "hybridizing away" relatives is more a consequence of local ducks declining than of mallards spreading; allopatric speciation and isolating behaviour have produced today's diversity of mallard-like ducks despite the fact that in most if not all of these populations, hybridization must have occurred to some extent.[citation needed]
Relationship with humans
The mallard is depicted in a marginal decoration of the 15th century English illuminated manuscript the Sherborne Missal.[55]
Since 1933, the Peabody Hotel in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee has maintained a long tradition of keeping one mallard drake and four mallard hens, called The Peabody Ducks, as a popular hotel attraction and as guests of honour. The mallards are provided by a local farmer and friend of the Peabody Hotel and are rotated out and returned to the farm for a new team of mallards every three months. This tradition has also been maintained and observed at the other Peabody Hotels in Little Rock, Arkansas and Orlando, Florida.[56]
Although mallard do not have as fine a flavour as teal, they have the advantage of being one of the larger ducks, so are selected for breeding for shooting and the table.[57] Shot sizes four and five are recommended for a clean and efficient kill in shooting mallard.[58]
The children's picture book Make Way for Ducklings, published in 1941 and winner of the 1942 Caldecott Medal for its illustrations, is the story of a pair of mallards who decide to raise their family on an island in the lagoon in Boston Public Garden in Massachusetts.[59]
Duck Head, a U.S. clothing brand, uses the image of a mallard's head as its logo.
A group of Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata) somewhat uncharacteristically diving to feed.
Very fun to watch a dabbler dive.Even more fun to watch several.
Sources i have found so far comment that this is an uncommonly observed behaviour.
somehow that makes it all the more entertaining….
Northern Shoveler NSHO* (Anas clypeata)
Brentwood Bay
BC
Vid Doc Taken morning September 26th 2016
PS these Shovelers began to join in here in this case.
In the case shown of GWTE shown further along in the photostream,although there were other Green Winged Teal feeding in the reservioir,none others were ever seen dive feeding.
Only ever the one that i ever saw,although i saw it using that feeding style several times.
I presume it was the same one each time.
2007 Photograph, Mated Pair of Green-winged Teal Dabbling (Anas carolinensis, Duck Family Anatidae), Huntley Meadows, Alexandria, Virginia © 2020.
Drake Mallard Anas platyrhynchos running on an ice-covered lake in Lindås, western Norway February 2016. This is the most numerous dabbling duck in the county, during all seasons.
Arundel John Edward MACSWINEY [born SWINEY]
Chaplain of WW1 ships; Sometime Commissioner of Zululand; dabbled in NZ National Party;
Father John SWINEY is a Major General; mother is a famous British suffragette and writer.
Arundel's wife was the daughter of a London yacht broker.
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In loving memory of
Arundel J.E. MACSWINEY
Died 30th December 1940
NB: Arundel formerly SWINEY appears to have during his life gone by the name of MACSWINEY.
Area 12 Block A Lot No. 345
Occupation at death: Manager – Civic Theatre; Residence: 14 Viewland Avenue: Roman Catholic; Native place: England[6]
…at a private hospital, Auckland, Arundel John Edward MACSWINEY, beloved husband an father of Vera and Brigid MACSWINEY, R.I.P. Requiem Mass at Church of Assumption, Onehunga, 9 a.m. on Thursday January 2, prior to interment at Hillsboro’ Cemetery.[2]
MACSWINEY Arundel John Edward of 5 Maunsell road Parnell Auckland New Zealand died 30 December 1940 at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital Auckland Probate Bristol 31 March to Vera Caroline MacSwiney widow. Effects £139 in England.[7]
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Arundel John Edward SWINEY [sic] aged 33, bachelor, Clerk of Holy Orders residing at H.M.S. Hercules married Vera Caroline PRATT, spinster aged 31 on 20 June 1914 at the Parish Church [St Mary, Teddington], Teddington, Middlesex, London. Married by Francis Leith BOYD, Vicar of Knightsbridge.
Witnesses: Gustavus Pratt and Rosa Frances G. SWINEY [early British feminist and writer. See information further below].
Father of Groom: John SWINEY (sic), Major General
Father of Bride: Gustavus[?] PRATT
1900: appears to have attended Cambridge University[10]
Noted as Chaplain of the fleet 25 March 1913[8]
Noted as Rev. Arundel J. E. MACSWINEY 13 July 18. On board SANDHURST. (Dev.) the Captain was Oswald McD. ENGLISH and Commander was John C. HUMFREY[8]
Awarded Star, Victory and British war medal as Chaplain in the Royal Navy[11]
1920 Electoral Roll, Acton [London, England], Ealing
Both he and Vera are down as living at 5a Latham Terrace[12]
Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 180, 31 July 1926, Page 6
Animated Signs, Limited, electric sign importers, manufacturers and agents, etc
Capital: £1000 in £1 shares.
Subscribers:
William Norman Bilton and Arundel J. E. MACSWINEY, advertising agents, Auckland, 500 shares each. [1]
Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 183, 4 August 1926, Page 12
MODERN ZULULAND.
(To the Editor.)
Sir, —To the numerous mis-statements with regard to Zululand, made by Mr. Stubbs in his recent article in your columns, Mr. Lowe has added a fresh crop. As one who has recently arrived from that country after having resided there for many years, I feel compelled to correct the mis-statements of facts as well as the deductions drawn therefrom. Eshowe is neither 1100 miles from Durban, as stated by Mr Stubbs, nor 260 as declared by Mr Lowe, but exactly 122 miles by rail, and a few miles less by road. Then Mr. Stubbs gives the population of Eshowe as 40,000, while Mr. Lowe affects to correct him by quoting it as about 4000, whereas the fact is that the white population is under 600, and the native population considerably less. Excerpt for the coast line, the rest of Zululand is from 1000 to 3000 feet above sea level, and entirely free from malaria. Eshowe is 1600 feet high and possesses one of the finest climates in South Africa. It is most beautifully situated, overlooking the low land to the Indian Ocean, and has in its midst one of the finest natural parks in South Africa, with trees of great stateliness, while the flora of the bush is most beautiful and luxuriant. It is inhabited by a valuable species of small buck. The gaol was originally intended for Zululand unfana (little boys) offenders, and strictly speaking is a reformatory, but for the last few years hardly any unfana from Zululand have merited confinement therein, and it is now filled with "boys" from Natal, chiefly Indian coolies. Mr. Stubbs Was partly correct in stating that no Indian was permitted in Zululand. That is to say, no Indian can take up land or trade in Zululand as he can in Natal but they are allowed to work on the sugar estates and farms, holding passes. The horrible Indian buses allowed in Natal are not permitted to cross the Tugela into Zululand. Speaking of roads, I have motored much in South Africa, and would say the Zululand roads rival for excellence any in the Union, especially the Gingindhlovu-E-howe road, which was made by the military during the first Zulu war. The Zulu in Zululand and the native in Natal are very different individuals. The Zululand Zulu is a vastly superior person, both mentally as well as physically, especially on those locations far Away from depraved European civilisation. It is deplorable that so few settlers take the trouble to understand the native, and usually treat him as a slave without rights or individuality. Treated with understanding and consideration, they are good servants, hard working, loyal and devoted friends. If Mr. Lowe ad a real knowledge of Zululand and its farming possibilities, he would give a better impression of its conditions. After all, all pioneer farming requires men of determination and back, bone, and Zululand is only in that stage of development at present. The settler certainly needs adequate capital, and the latest agricultural appliances. It is true that along the coast for about twenty miles inland there exists a belt of low lying country, which is both hot and malaria infested. But it is only those Europeans who persistently refuse to take the necessary precautions who are seriously affected by the climatic conditions, and it is ridiculous to say that no white man can live in this fever belt for more than a few years. That is a yarn heard in Natal about Zululand which causes the utmost amusement to Zululanders. I know scores of sugar planters and others who have been farming in this district for a quarter of a century, and more, without any ill effects. —I am, etc., A. J. E. MacSWINEY, Late B.S. District Commissioner for Zululand, etc [5]
1928 Electoral Roll, Auckland, Manukau
MacSwiney, Arundel John Edward, 564a Manukau Road, stationer
1935 Electoral Roll, Auckland, Manukau
MacSwiney, Arundel John Edward, 3 View Av., Onehunga. Grocer
Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 81, 6 April 1938, Page 10
NATIONAL PARTY
ROYAL OAK BRANCH
In spite of heavy rain there was a good attendance of supporters at the Royal Oak Hall last night when an address was given by Mr. T. G. Wilkes. Dominion organiser of the New Zealand National party. Mr. M. W. Thompson occupied the chair.
Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 81, 6 April 1938, Page 10
It was unanimously decided that a branch of the party should be set up to operate in the Royal Oak area of the Onehunga electorate. A committee of 14 was elected, with Mr. M. W. Thompson as chairman, and Mr. A. J. E. MacSwiney as secretary.[3]
New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22991, 19 March 1938, Page 19
He put forward a suggestion to have a New Zealand book fair “to be held for the advancement of cultural education and appreciation of the higher standards of literature, to take place at Auckland during the Centenary Year, 1940.[4]
1940 Wise’s Post Office Directory
Viewland Ave right from Trafalgar Street. 3, MacSwiney Arundel J. Slsmn [salesman] [9]
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About Vera – Arundel’s wife
1891 England Census
24 Tavistock Square,
Gustavus PRATT; head; aged 36; yacht broker; born Mayfair, London
[Gustavus was original owner of Cox & King Vessels, first appearing in Lloyds register of yachts in 1878 [15] He died 14 Oct 1917, Isleworth, Greater London and is buried at Teddington Cemetery, London [16]]
Fanny PRATT; wife; aged 34; born Clapham, London
[Fanny died 2 February 1915 and is buried with Gustavus]
Vera; daughter; aged 8; born Clapham, London
Gordon; son; aged 6; born Clapham, London
Vera Caroline MACSWINEY
1942: Wises directory, noted as living at 14 Viewland ave, Onehunga[9]
Vera Caroline MacSwiney [Vera Caroline PRATT] birth date 1882; arrival date 21 July 1964 at port of entry New York and country of Origin United Kingdom. Registration 13876752. Appears in the Index to Alien case files at the National Archives at Kansas city 1944-2003 via ancestry.co.uk.
Vera’s death is not recorded in NZ [at least not that I can find on NZ Department internal affairs historic BDM indexes]. I have not found a remarriage but a death is recorded in ancestry.co.uk on the Florida death index 1877-1998 of 97 year old Vera C MACSWINEY bon 18 September 1882 and dying 17 January 1980 at Hillsborough, Florida, USA.
There is a photo of this grave: www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=442418...
*****************************************************************************
Arundel’s mother:
Rosa Frances Emily [aka Frances] SWINEY, née Biggs, (21 April 1847 – 3 May 1922) was an early British feminist and writer. She was born in Poona, India, but spent most of her childhood in Ireland. In 1871 she married Major John Swiney (1832–1918), and devoted herself to becoming a full-time wife and mother. Swiney relocated to Cheltenham, Gloucestershire in 1877, a place she described later in her life as "the town of no ideals", where her husband joined her ten years later[13]
Rosa was the daughter of Major John BIGGS. [She and Arundel who was 15 years her senior] had 2 daughters and 4 sons. She was a theosophist, the founder of and president of the League of Isis and a vice president of the Cheltenham Food Reform and Health Association. In 1913 she supported the National Political League and in 1918 she was a member of the Suffragettes of the WSPU.[14]
Gutenberg item on Frances here: self.gutenberg.org/articles/frances_swiney
More links: www.lucienneboyce.com/assets/files/The%20Cheltenham%20Suf...
Arundel’s father:
John Swiney
Portrait in comments section below.
© National Portrait Gallery, London
by Bassano Ltd
whole-plate glass negative, 28 February 1911
Given by Bassano & Vandyk Studios, 1974
Photographs Collection
NPG x79833
SOURCES:
[1]
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...
[2]
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...
[3]
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...
[4]
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...
[5]
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...
[6]
Online cemetery database
[7]
Ancestry.co.uk: England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations) 1858-1966
[8]
Ancestry.co.uk: UK, Navy Lists, 1888-1970: 1919, January
[9]
Ancestry.co.uk: New Zealand, City & Area Directories, 1866-1954
[10]
Ancestry.co.uk: index only record for Cambridge University Alumni 1261-1900
[11]
Ancestry.co.uk: WW1 Medals and Awards; Naval War Medals – Officers; Royal Navy, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, Auxiliary Service and Air Service.
[12]
Ancestry.co.uk: London, England, Electoral Registers, 1832-1965
[13]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Swiney
[14]
books.google.co.nz/books?id=a2EK9P7-ZMsC&pg=PA668&...
[15]
www.francoisgrosjean.ch/cox_and_king/presentation.html
and
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cox_%26_King
[16]
Arundel John Edward MACSWINEY [born SWINEY]
Chaplain of WW1 ships; Sometime Commissioner of Zululand; dabbled in NZ National Party;
Father John SWINEY is a Major General; mother is a famous British suffragette and writer.
Arundel's wife was the daughter of a London yacht broker.
*************************************************************************
In loving memory of
Arundel J.E. MACSWINEY
Died 30th December 1940
NB: Arundel formerly SWINEY appears to have during his life gone by the name of MACSWINEY.
Area 12 Block A Lot No. 345
Occupation at death: Manager – Civic Theatre; Residence: 14 Viewland Avenue: Roman Catholic; Native place: England[6]
…at a private hospital, Auckland, Arundel John Edward MACSWINEY, beloved husband an father of Vera and Brigid MACSWINEY, R.I.P. Requiem Mass at Church of Assumption, Onehunga, 9 a.m. on Thursday January 2, prior to interment at Hillsboro’ Cemetery.[2]
MACSWINEY Arundel John Edward of 5 Maunsell road Parnell Auckland New Zealand died 30 December 1940 at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital Auckland Probate Bristol 31 March to Vera Caroline MacSwiney widow. Effects £139 in England.[7]
********************************************************************
Arundel John Edward SWINEY [sic] aged 33, bachelor, Clerk of Holy Orders residing at H.M.S. Hercules married Vera Caroline PRATT, spinster aged 31 on 20 June 1914 at the Parish Church [St Mary, Teddington], Teddington, Middlesex, London. Married by Francis Leith BOYD, Vicar of Knightsbridge.
Witnesses: Gustavus Pratt and Rosa Frances G. SWINEY [early British feminist and writer. See information further below].
Father of Groom: John SWINEY (sic), Major General
Father of Bride: Gustavus[?] PRATT
1900: appears to have attended Cambridge University[10]
Noted as Chaplain of the fleet 25 March 1913[8]
Noted as Rev. Arundel J. E. MACSWINEY 13 July 18. On board SANDHURST. (Dev.) the Captain was Oswald McD. ENGLISH and Commander was John C. HUMFREY[8]
Awarded Star, Victory and British war medal as Chaplain in the Royal Navy[11]
1920 Electoral Roll, Acton [London, England], Ealing
Both he and Vera are down as living at 5a Latham Terrace[12]
Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 180, 31 July 1926, Page 6
Animated Signs, Limited, electric sign importers, manufacturers and agents, etc
Capital: £1000 in £1 shares.
Subscribers:
William Norman Bilton and Arundel J. E. MACSWINEY, advertising agents, Auckland, 500 shares each. [1]
Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 183, 4 August 1926, Page 12
MODERN ZULULAND.
(To the Editor.)
Sir, —To the numerous mis-statements with regard to Zululand, made by Mr. Stubbs in his recent article in your columns, Mr. Lowe has added a fresh crop. As one who has recently arrived from that country after having resided there for many years, I feel compelled to correct the mis-statements of facts as well as the deductions drawn therefrom. Eshowe is neither 1100 miles from Durban, as stated by Mr Stubbs, nor 260 as declared by Mr Lowe, but exactly 122 miles by rail, and a few miles less by road. Then Mr. Stubbs gives the population of Eshowe as 40,000, while Mr. Lowe affects to correct him by quoting it as about 4000, whereas the fact is that the white population is under 600, and the native population considerably less. Excerpt for the coast line, the rest of Zululand is from 1000 to 3000 feet above sea level, and entirely free from malaria. Eshowe is 1600 feet high and possesses one of the finest climates in South Africa. It is most beautifully situated, overlooking the low land to the Indian Ocean, and has in its midst one of the finest natural parks in South Africa, with trees of great stateliness, while the flora of the bush is most beautiful and luxuriant. It is inhabited by a valuable species of small buck. The gaol was originally intended for Zululand unfana (little boys) offenders, and strictly speaking is a reformatory, but for the last few years hardly any unfana from Zululand have merited confinement therein, and it is now filled with "boys" from Natal, chiefly Indian coolies. Mr. Stubbs Was partly correct in stating that no Indian was permitted in Zululand. That is to say, no Indian can take up land or trade in Zululand as he can in Natal but they are allowed to work on the sugar estates and farms, holding passes. The horrible Indian buses allowed in Natal are not permitted to cross the Tugela into Zululand. Speaking of roads, I have motored much in South Africa, and would say the Zululand roads rival for excellence any in the Union, especially the Gingindhlovu-E-howe road, which was made by the military during the first Zulu war. The Zulu in Zululand and the native in Natal are very different individuals. The Zululand Zulu is a vastly superior person, both mentally as well as physically, especially on those locations far Away from depraved European civilisation. It is deplorable that so few settlers take the trouble to understand the native, and usually treat him as a slave without rights or individuality. Treated with understanding and consideration, they are good servants, hard working, loyal and devoted friends. If Mr. Lowe ad a real knowledge of Zululand and its farming possibilities, he would give a better impression of its conditions. After all, all pioneer farming requires men of determination and back, bone, and Zululand is only in that stage of development at present. The settler certainly needs adequate capital, and the latest agricultural appliances. It is true that along the coast for about twenty miles inland there exists a belt of low lying country, which is both hot and malaria infested. But it is only those Europeans who persistently refuse to take the necessary precautions who are seriously affected by the climatic conditions, and it is ridiculous to say that no white man can live in this fever belt for more than a few years. That is a yarn heard in Natal about Zululand which causes the utmost amusement to Zululanders. I know scores of sugar planters and others who have been farming in this district for a quarter of a century, and more, without any ill effects. —I am, etc., A. J. E. MacSWINEY, Late B.S. District Commissioner for Zululand, etc [5]
1928 Electoral Roll, Auckland, Manukau
MacSwiney, Arundel John Edward, 564a Manukau Road, stationer
1935 Electoral Roll, Auckland, Manukau
MacSwiney, Arundel John Edward, 3 View Av., Onehunga. Grocer
Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 81, 6 April 1938, Page 10
NATIONAL PARTY
ROYAL OAK BRANCH
In spite of heavy rain there was a good attendance of supporters at the Royal Oak Hall last night when an address was given by Mr. T. G. Wilkes. Dominion organiser of the New Zealand National party. Mr. M. W. Thompson occupied the chair.
Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 81, 6 April 1938, Page 10
It was unanimously decided that a branch of the party should be set up to operate in the Royal Oak area of the Onehunga electorate. A committee of 14 was elected, with Mr. M. W. Thompson as chairman, and Mr. A. J. E. MacSwiney as secretary.[3]
New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22991, 19 March 1938, Page 19
He put forward a suggestion to have a New Zealand book fair “to be held for the advancement of cultural education and appreciation of the higher standards of literature, to take place at Auckland during the Centenary Year, 1940.[4]
1940 Wise’s Post Office Directory
Viewland Ave right from Trafalgar Street. 3, MacSwiney Arundel J. Slsmn [salesman] [9]
**********************************************************************************************
About Vera – Arundel’s wife
1891 England Census
24 Tavistock Square,
Gustavus PRATT; head; aged 36; yacht broker; born Mayfair, London
[Gustavus was original owner of Cox & King Vessels, first appearing in Lloyds register of yachts in 1878 [15] He died 14 Oct 1917, Isleworth, Greater London and is buried at Teddington Cemetery, London [16]]
Fanny PRATT; wife; aged 34; born Clapham, London
[Fanny died 2 February 1915 and is buried with Gustavus]
Vera; daughter; aged 8; born Clapham, London
Gordon; son; aged 6; born Clapham, London
Vera Caroline MACSWINEY
1942: Wises directory, noted as living at 14 Viewland ave, Onehunga[9]
Vera Caroline MacSwiney [Vera Caroline PRATT] birth date 1882; arrival date 21 July 1964 at port of entry New York and country of Origin United Kingdom. Registration 13876752. Appears in the Index to Alien case files at the National Archives at Kansas city 1944-2003 via ancestry.co.uk.
Vera’s death is not recorded in NZ [at least not that I can find on NZ Department internal affairs historic BDM indexes]. I have not found a remarriage but a death is recorded in ancestry.co.uk on the Florida death index 1877-1998 of 97 year old Vera C MACSWINEY bon 18 September 1882 and dying 17 January 1980 at Hillsborough, Florida, USA.
There is a photo of this grave: www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=442418...
*****************************************************************************
Arundel’s mother:
Rosa Frances Emily [aka Frances] SWINEY, née Biggs, (21 April 1847 – 3 May 1922) was an early British feminist and writer. She was born in Poona, India, but spent most of her childhood in Ireland. In 1871 she married Major John Swiney (1832–1918), and devoted herself to becoming a full-time wife and mother. Swiney relocated to Cheltenham, Gloucestershire in 1877, a place she described later in her life as "the town of no ideals", where her husband joined her ten years later[13]
Rosa was the daughter of Major John BIGGS. [She and Arundel who was 15 years her senior] had 2 daughters and 4 sons. She was a theosophist, the founder of and president of the League of Isis and a vice president of the Cheltenham Food Reform and Health Association. In 1913 she supported the National Political League and in 1918 she was a member of the Suffragettes of the WSPU.[14]
Gutenberg item on Frances here: self.gutenberg.org/articles/frances_swiney
More links: www.lucienneboyce.com/assets/files/The%20Cheltenham%20Suf...
Arundel’s father:
John Swiney
Portrait in comments section below.
© National Portrait Gallery, London
by Bassano Ltd
whole-plate glass negative, 28 February 1911
Given by Bassano & Vandyk Studios, 1974
Photographs Collection
NPG x79833
SOURCES:
[1]
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...
[2]
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...
[3]
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...
[4]
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...
[5]
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...
[6]
Online cemetery database
[7]
Ancestry.co.uk: England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations) 1858-1966
[8]
Ancestry.co.uk: UK, Navy Lists, 1888-1970: 1919, January
[9]
Ancestry.co.uk: New Zealand, City & Area Directories, 1866-1954
[10]
Ancestry.co.uk: index only record for Cambridge University Alumni 1261-1900
[11]
Ancestry.co.uk: WW1 Medals and Awards; Naval War Medals – Officers; Royal Navy, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, Auxiliary Service and Air Service.
[12]
Ancestry.co.uk: London, England, Electoral Registers, 1832-1965
[13]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Swiney
[14]
books.google.co.nz/books?id=a2EK9P7-ZMsC&pg=PA668&...
[15]
www.francoisgrosjean.ch/cox_and_king/presentation.html
and
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cox_%26_King
[16]
The Mallard (pron.: /ˈmælɑrd/ or /ˈmælərd/) or Wild Duck (Anas platyrhynchos) is a dabbling duck which breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand and Australia. This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae.
The male birds (drakes) have a glossy green head and are grey on wings and belly, while the females have mainly brown-speckled plumage. Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are gregarious. This species is the ancestor of most breeds of domestic ducks. (Wikipedia)
To learn more click here or here (Deutsch).
Dabbled in some light painted product photography for the first time in quite awhile. The recipe is mostly the same:
- an iPhone set to a white image with the brightness dialled up; your source of illumination
- some black foamcore boards as a backdrop
However, this time, I tried a glass coffee table to bring in some reflections.
A very wild Mallard family hiding (but not well enough) in a rhyne. As soon as she spotted me she and chicks disappeared. Isle Brewers, Somerset,UK.
Had a little dabble into astrophotography last night with a very basic hand held camera and my late fathers home built 10 inch reflector telescope...........Please note ALL pictures on this Photostream are Copyright Protected)
The Eurasian teal or common teal (Anas crecca) is a common and widespread duck which breeds in temperate Eurasia and migrates south in winter. The Eurasian teal is often called simply the teal due to being the only one of these small dabbling ducks in much of its range.[2] The bird gives its name to the blue-green colour teal.
It is a highly gregarious duck outside the breeding season and can form large flocks. It is commonly found in sheltered wetlands and feeds on seeds and aquatic invertebrates.
Description:
The Eurasian teal is the smallest extant dabbling duck at 20–30 cm (7.9–11.8 in) length and with an average weight of 340 g (12 oz) in drake (males) and 320 g (11 oz) in hens (females). The wings are 17.5–20.4 cm (6.9–8.0 in) long, yielding a wingspan of 53–59 cm (21–23 in). The bill measures 3.2–4 cm (1.3–1.6 in) in length, and the tarsus 2.8–3.4 cm (1.1–1.3 in).[2][3]
From a distance, the drakes in nuptial plumage appear grey, with a dark head, a yellowish behind, and a white stripe running along the flanks. Their head and upper neck is chestnut, with a wide and iridescent dark green patch of half-moon- or teardrop-shape that starts immediately before the eye and arcs to the upper hindneck. The patch is bordered with thin yellowish-white lines, and a single line of that colour extends from the patch's forward end, curving along the base of the bill. The breast is buff with small round brown spots. The center of the belly is white, and the rest of the body plumage is mostly white with thin and dense blackish vermiculations, appearing medium grey even at a short distance. The outer scapular feathers are white, with a black border to the outer vanes, and form the white side-stripe when the bird is in resting position. The primary remiges are dark greyish brown; the speculum feathers are iridescent blackish-green with white tips, and form the speculum together with the yellowish-white tips of the larger upperwing coverts (which are otherwise grey). The underwing is whitish, with grey remiges, dense dark spotting on the inner coverts and a dark leading edge. The tail and tail coverts are black, with a bright yellowish-buff triangular patch in the center of the coverts at each side.[3]
In non-breeding (eclipse) plumage, the drake looks more like the hen; it is more uniform in colour, with a dark head and vestigial facial markings. The hen itself is yellowish-brown, somewhat darker on wings and back. It has a dark greyish-brown upper head, hindneck, eyestripe and feather pattern. The pattern is dense short streaks on the head and neck, and scaly spots on the rest of the body; overall they look much like a tiny mallard (A. platyrhynchos) hen when at rest. The wings are coloured similar to the drake's, but with brown instead of grey upperwing coverts that have less wide tips, and wider tips of the speculum feathers. The hen's rectrices have yellowish-white tips; the midbelly is whitish with some dark streaking.[3]
Immatures are coloured much like hens, but have a stronger pattern. The downy young are coloured like in other dabbling ducks: brown above and yellow below, with a yellow supercilium. They are recognizable by their tiny size however, weighing just 15 g (0.53 oz) at hatching.[2][3][4]
The drake's bill is dark grey, in eclipse plumage often with some light greenish or brownish hue at the base. The bill of hens and immatures is pinkish or yellowish at the base, becoming dark grey towards the tip; the grey expands basewards as the birds age. The feet are dark grey in males and greyish olive or greyish-brown in females and immatures. The iris is always brown.[3]
Moults during summer. Male in eclipse resembles female, but with darker upperparts and grey bill. Flight feathers are moulted simultaneously and birds are flightless for up to 4 weeks.[5]
This is a noisy species. The male whistles cryc or creelycc, not loud but very clear and far-carrying. The female has a feeble keh or neeh quack. [3]
Males in nuptial plumage are distinguished from green-winged teals by the horizontal white scapular stripe, the lack of a vertical white bar at the breast sides, and the quite conspicuous light outlines of the face patch, which are indistinct in the green-winged teal drake. Males in eclipse plumage, females and immatures are best recognised by their small size, calls, and the speculum; they are hard to tell apart from the green-winged teal however.[3]
Taxonomy:
The Eurasian teal belongs to the "true" teals, a group of small Anas dabbling ducks closely related to the mallard (A. platyrhynchos) and its relatives; that latter group in fact seems to have evolved from a true teal. It forms a superspecies with the green-winged teal and the speckled teal (A. flavirostris). A proposed subspecies, A. c. nimia of the Aleutian Islands, differs only in slightly larger size; it is probably not distinct.[2][6][7]
Whether the Eurasian and green-winged teals are to be treated as one or two species is still being reviewed by the AOU,[8] while the IUCN and BirdLife International separate them nowadays.[1] Despite the almost identical and highly apomorphic nuptial plumage of their males, which continues to puzzle scientists, they seem well distinct species, as indicated by a wealth of behavioural, morphological and molecular data.[6][7][9][10]
The Eurasian teal was first scientifically named by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 edition of Systema naturae. His Latin description reads: [Anas] macula alarum viridi, linea alba supra infraque oculos – "a duck with green speculum, a white line above and below the eyes" – and his primary reference was the bird's description in his earlier work Fauna Svecica.[11] In fact, the description he used in Systema Naturae was the name under which the bird went in the Fauna Svecica, demonstrating the value of his new binomial nomenclature by compressing the long-winded names formerly used in biological classification into much simpler scientific names like Anas crecca. Linnaeus also noted in his description that earlier authors had already written about the Eurasan teal at length: Conrad Gessner[12] had described it in the Historiae animalium as the anas parva ("small duck") among his querquedulae ("teals"); Ulisse Aldrovandi[13] had called it phascade or querquedula minor ("lesser teal"), and was duly referenced by Francis Willughby[14] who named the species querquedula secunda Aldrovandi ("the second teal of Aldrovandus"[note 1]). John Ray[16] may be credited with formally introducing the name "common teal", while Eleazar Albin[17] called it simply "the teal". As regards the type locality Linnaeus simply remarked that it inhabits freshwater ecosystems in Europe.[15]
The scientific name is from Latin Anas, "duck" and kricka, the Swedish name for this species.[18] The specific name of Linnaeus is onomatopoetic, referring to the male's characteristic call which was already discussed by Linnaeus' sources.[citation needed] The scientific name of the Eurasian teal—unchanged since Linnaeus' time— therefore translates as "duck that makes cryc"; common names like the Bokmål krikkand, Danish krikand and German Krickente mean the same.
Distribution and habitat:
Wintering birds at Purbasthali, Burdwan District of West Bengal (India)
The Eurasian teal breeds across northern Eurasia and mostly winters well south of its breeding range. However, in the milder climate of temperate Europe, the summer and winter ranges overlap. For example, in the United Kingdom and Ireland a small summer population breeds, but far greater numbers of Siberian birds arrive in winter. In the Caucasus region, western Asia Minor, along the northern shores of the Black Sea, and even on the south coast of Iceland and on the Vestmannaeyjar, the species can be encountered all year, too.[3]
In winter, there are high densities around the Mediterranean, including the entire Iberian Peninsula and extending west to Mauretania; on Japan and Taiwan; as well as in South Asia. Other important wintering locations include almost the entire length of the Nile Valley, the Near East and Persian Gulf region, the mountain ranges of northern Iran, and South Korea and continental East and Southeast Asia. More isolated wintering grounds are Lake Victoria, the Senegal River estuary, the swamps of the upper Congo River, the inland and sea deltas of the Niger River, and the central Indus River valley. Vagrants have been seen in inland Zaire, Malaysia, on Greenland, and on the Marianas, Palau and Yap in Micronesia;[19] they are regularly recorded on the North American coasts south to California and South Carolina.[3]
Altogether, the Eurasian teal is much less common than its American counterpart, though still very plentiful. Its numbers are mainly assessed by counts of wintering birds; some 750,000 are recorded annually around the Mediterranean and Black Seas, 250,000 in temperate western Europe, and more than 110,000 in Japan. In 1990 and 1991, a more detailed census was undertaken, yielding over 210,000 birds wintering in Iran, some 109,000 in Pakistan, about 77,000 in Azerbaijan, some 37,000 in India, 28,000 in Israel, over 14,000 in Turkmenistan and almost 12,000 in Taiwan. It appears to be holding its own currently, with its slow decline of maybe 1–2% annually in the 1990s – presumably mainly due to drainage and pollution of wetlands – not warranting action other than continuing to monitor the population and possibly providing better protection for habitat on the wintering grounds. The IUCN and BirdLife International classify the Eurasian teal as a species of Least Concern, unchanged from their assessment before the split of the more numerous A. carolinensis.[1][2][3]
The Eurasian teal is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.
Behaviour:
This dabbling duck is highly gregarious outside of the breeding season and will form large flocks. In flight, the fast, twisting flocks resemble waders; despite its short legs, it is also rather nimble on the ground by ducks' standards. In the breeding season, it is a common inhabitant of sheltered freshwater wetlands with some tall vegetation, such as taiga bogs or small lakes and ponds with extensive reedbeds. In winter, it is often seen in brackish waters and even in sheltered inlets and lagoons along the seashore.[3]
The Eurasian teal usually feeds by dabbling, upending or grazing; it may submerge its head and on occasion even dive to reach food. In the breeding season it eats mainly aquatic invertebrates, such as crustaceans, insects and their larvae, molluscs and worms. In winter, it shifts to a largely granivorous diet, feeding on seeds of aquatic plants and grasses, including sedges and grains. Diurnal throughout the breeding season, in winter they are often crepuscular or even nocturnal feeders.[3]
It nests on the ground, near water and under cover. The pairs form in the winter quarters and arrive on the breeding grounds together, starting about March. The breeding starts some weeks thereafter, not until May in the most northernly locations. The nest is a deep hollow lined with dry leaves and down feathers, built in dense vegetation near water. After the females have started laying, the males leave them and move away for shorter or longer distances, assembling in flocks on particular lakes where they moult into eclipse plumage; they will usually encounter their offspring only in winter quarters. The clutch may consist of 5–16 eggs, but usually numbers 8–11; they are incubated for 21–23 days. The young leave the nest soon after hatching and are attended by the mother for about 25–30 days, after which they fledge. The drakes and the hens with young generally move to the winter quarters separately. After the first winter, the young moult into adult plumage. The maximum recorded lifespan – though it is not clear whether this refers to the common or the green-winged teal—was over 27 years, which is rather high for such a small bird.[3]
References:
*Wikipedia
BirdLife International (2012). "Anas crecca". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Carboneras, Carles (1992). del Hoyo, Josep; Elliott, Andrew; Sargatal, Jordi, eds. Family Anatidae (Ducks, Geese and Swans). Handbook of Birds of the World. Volume 1: Ostrich to Ducks. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. pp. 536–629, plates 40–50. ISBN 84-87334-10-5.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m Madge, S.; Burn, H. (1987). Wildfowl, an Identification Guide to the Ducks, Geese and Swans of the World. London: Christopher Helm. ISBN 0713636475.
Jump up ^ "Anas crecca life history data". AnAge. 2009. Retrieved 6 January 2009.
Jump up ^ RSPB Handbook of British Birds (2104). UK ISBN 978-1-4729-0647-2.
^ Jump up to: a b Livezey, Bradley C. (1991). "A phylogenetic analysis and classification of recent dabbling ducks (Tribe Anatini) based on comparative morphology" (PDF). Auk. 108 (3): 471–507. doi:10.2307/4088089.
^ Jump up to: a b Johnson, Kevin P.; Sorenson, Michael D. (1999). "Phylogeny and biogeography of dabbling ducks (genus Anas): a comparison of molecular and morphological evidence" (PDF). Auk. 116 (3): 792–805. doi:10.2307/4089339.
Jump up ^ South American Classification Committee (2008). "Part 1. Struthioniformes to Cathartiformes, Version of 22 December 2008". A classification of the bird species of South America. Retrieved 5 January 2009.
Jump up ^ Laurie-Ahlberg, C.C.; McKinney, F. (1979). "The nod-swim display of male Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca)". Animal Behaviour. 27: 165. doi:10.1016/0003-3472(79)90136-2.
Jump up ^ Sangster, George; Knox, Alan G.; Helbig, Andreas J.; Parkin, David T. (2002). "Taxonomic recommendations for European birds". Ibis. 144: 153. doi:10.1046/j.0019-1019.2001.00026.x.
Jump up ^ Linnaeus, Carl (1746): 109. Anas macula alarum viridi: linea alba supra infraque oculos. In: Fauna Svecica Sistens Animalia Sveciæ Regni, etc. (1st ed.): 39–40 [in Latin]. Conrad & Georg Jacob Wishoff, Leiden ("Lugdunum Batavorum").
Jump up ^ Gessner, Conrad (1555). Historiae animalium (in Latin). vol. 3. Zürich [Tigurium]: Christoph Froschauer. pp. 103–105.
Jump up ^ Aldrovandi, Ulisse (Ulyssis Aldrovandus) (1637). Ornithologia (in Latin). vol. 3: Tomus tertius ac postremus (2nd ed.). Bologna [Bononia]: Nicolò Tebaldini. pp. 207–209.
Jump up ^ Willughby, Francis (1676). Ornithologiae libri tres (in Latin). London: John Martyn. p. 290.
^ Jump up to: a b Linnaeus 1758, pp. 126–127
Jump up ^ Ray, John (Joannis Raii) (1713). Synopsis methodica avium & piscium: opus posthumum, etc. (in Latin). vol. 1. London: William Innys. pp. 147–148.
Jump up ^ Albin, Eleazar (1731–1738): A natural history of the birds (3 volumes). William Innys, London. Vol.1, p.95, plate 100; vol. 2, p.91, plate 102
Jump up ^ Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 46, 121. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
Jump up ^ Wiles, Gary J.; Johnson, Nathan C.; de Cruz, Justine B.; Dutson, Guy; Camacho, Vicente A.; Kepler, Angela Kay; Vice, Daniel S.; Garrett, Kimball L.; Kessler, Curt C.; Pratt, H. Douglas (2004). "New and Noteworthy Bird Records for Micronesia, 1986–2003". Micronesica. 37 (1): 69–96.
The Australian wood duck, Maned duck or Maned goose (Chenonetta jubata) is a dabbling duck found throughout much of Australia. It is the only living species in the genus Chenonetta. Traditionally placed in the subfamily Anatinae (dabbling ducks), it might actually belong to the subfamily Tadorninae (shelducks); the ringed teal may be its closest living relative.
DESCRIPTION
The Australian Wood Duck is a medium-sized (45–51cm) 'goose-like' duck with a dark brown head and a pale grey body with two black stripes along the back. Males have the darker head and a small dark mane, with a speckled brown-grey breast and a black lower belly and undertail. The females have a paler head with two white stripes, above and below the eye, a speckled breast and flanks, with a white lower belly and undertail. Juveniles are similar to adult females, but lighter and with a more streaky breast.
In flight, the wings are pale grey above, contrasting with black wingtips, and have a noticeable white bar on the underside (the secondaries). They walk easily on land and may be seen perching on logs and in trees. They will only take to open water when disturbed.
DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT
The Australian wood duck is widespread in Australia, including Tasmania. The Australian wood duck is found in grasslands, open woodlands, wetlands, flooded pastures and along the coast in inlets and bays. It is also common on farmland with dams, as well as around rice fields, sewage ponds and in urban parks. It will often be found around deeper lakes that may be unsuitable for other waterbirds' foraging, as it prefers to forage on land.
This level of adaptability to modified environments has allowed the species to expand its range greatly since Europeans colonised Australia. Australian wood ducks have benefited from agriculture developments, with creation of dams and pools. It is classified as a game bird, and killed by licensed hunters. This species is not threatened, and numbers are stable.
BREEDING
The Australian Wood Duck forms monogamous breeding pairs that stay together year round. They nest in cavities in trees or in nest-boxes above or near water, often re-using the same site. Nests are made with a pile of down. The female lays 9 to 11 cream-white eggs, similar to the Mandarin ducks. The female incubates them while the male stands guard. Once the ducklings are ready to leave the nest, the female flies to the ground and the duckling will leap to the ground and follow their parents. The males secure their ducklings closely along with the females. Both parents feed young and young birds remain with them up to a month after fledging.
FEEDING
The Australian wood duck feeds mostly by grazing in flocks. The ducks eat grasses, grains, clover and other herbs, and occasionally, insects. It is rarely seen on open water, preferring to forage by dabbling in shallow water, or in grasslands and crops.
Source: Wikipedia, birdlife.org.au
First dabble with long expo on my new camera, although not quite how I wanted it I'm quite happy with the lack of noise, so will be doing some more of these - just on the hunt for some good spots now :)
The Northern Shoverler is classified as a dabbling duck. I think this one is a dribbling duck. Oso Flaco Lake, San Luis Obispo county, California
The Eurasian teal or common teal (Anas crecca) is a common and widespread duck which breeds in temperate Eurasia and migrates south in winter. The Eurasian teal is often called simply the teal due to being the only one of these small dabbling ducks in much of its range.[2] The bird gives its name to the blue-green colour teal.
It is a highly gregarious duck outside the breeding season and can form large flocks. It is commonly found in sheltered wetlands and feeds on seeds and aquatic invertebrates.
Description:
The Eurasian teal is the smallest extant dabbling duck at 20–30 cm (7.9–11.8 in) length and with an average weight of 340 g (12 oz) in drake (males) and 320 g (11 oz) in hens (females). The wings are 17.5–20.4 cm (6.9–8.0 in) long, yielding a wingspan of 53–59 cm (21–23 in). The bill measures 3.2–4 cm (1.3–1.6 in) in length, and the tarsus 2.8–3.4 cm (1.1–1.3 in).[2][3]
From a distance, the drakes in nuptial plumage appear grey, with a dark head, a yellowish behind, and a white stripe running along the flanks. Their head and upper neck is chestnut, with a wide and iridescent dark green patch of half-moon- or teardrop-shape that starts immediately before the eye and arcs to the upper hindneck. The patch is bordered with thin yellowish-white lines, and a single line of that colour extends from the patch's forward end, curving along the base of the bill. The breast is buff with small round brown spots. The center of the belly is white, and the rest of the body plumage is mostly white with thin and dense blackish vermiculations, appearing medium grey even at a short distance. The outer scapular feathers are white, with a black border to the outer vanes, and form the white side-stripe when the bird is in resting position. The primary remiges are dark greyish brown; the speculum feathers are iridescent blackish-green with white tips, and form the speculum together with the yellowish-white tips of the larger upperwing coverts (which are otherwise grey). The underwing is whitish, with grey remiges, dense dark spotting on the inner coverts and a dark leading edge. The tail and tail coverts are black, with a bright yellowish-buff triangular patch in the center of the coverts at each side.[3]
In non-breeding (eclipse) plumage, the drake looks more like the hen; it is more uniform in colour, with a dark head and vestigial facial markings. The hen itself is yellowish-brown, somewhat darker on wings and back. It has a dark greyish-brown upper head, hindneck, eyestripe and feather pattern. The pattern is dense short streaks on the head and neck, and scaly spots on the rest of the body; overall they look much like a tiny mallard (A. platyrhynchos) hen when at rest. The wings are coloured similar to the drake's, but with brown instead of grey upperwing coverts that have less wide tips, and wider tips of the speculum feathers. The hen's rectrices have yellowish-white tips; the midbelly is whitish with some dark streaking.[3]
Immatures are coloured much like hens, but have a stronger pattern. The downy young are coloured like in other dabbling ducks: brown above and yellow below, with a yellow supercilium. They are recognizable by their tiny size however, weighing just 15 g (0.53 oz) at hatching.[2][3][4]
The drake's bill is dark grey, in eclipse plumage often with some light greenish or brownish hue at the base. The bill of hens and immatures is pinkish or yellowish at the base, becoming dark grey towards the tip; the grey expands basewards as the birds age. The feet are dark grey in males and greyish olive or greyish-brown in females and immatures. The iris is always brown.[3]
Moults during summer. Male in eclipse resembles female, but with darker upperparts and grey bill. Flight feathers are moulted simultaneously and birds are flightless for up to 4 weeks.[5]
This is a noisy species. The male whistles cryc or creelycc, not loud but very clear and far-carrying. The female has a feeble keh or neeh quack. [3]
Males in nuptial plumage are distinguished from green-winged teals by the horizontal white scapular stripe, the lack of a vertical white bar at the breast sides, and the quite conspicuous light outlines of the face patch, which are indistinct in the green-winged teal drake. Males in eclipse plumage, females and immatures are best recognised by their small size, calls, and the speculum; they are hard to tell apart from the green-winged teal however.[3]
Taxonomy:
The Eurasian teal belongs to the "true" teals, a group of small Anas dabbling ducks closely related to the mallard (A. platyrhynchos) and its relatives; that latter group in fact seems to have evolved from a true teal. It forms a superspecies with the green-winged teal and the speckled teal (A. flavirostris). A proposed subspecies, A. c. nimia of the Aleutian Islands, differs only in slightly larger size; it is probably not distinct.[2][6][7]
Whether the Eurasian and green-winged teals are to be treated as one or two species is still being reviewed by the AOU,[8] while the IUCN and BirdLife International separate them nowadays.[1] Despite the almost identical and highly apomorphic nuptial plumage of their males, which continues to puzzle scientists, they seem well distinct species, as indicated by a wealth of behavioural, morphological and molecular data.[6][7][9][10]
The Eurasian teal was first scientifically named by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 edition of Systema naturae. His Latin description reads: [Anas] macula alarum viridi, linea alba supra infraque oculos – "a duck with green speculum, a white line above and below the eyes" – and his primary reference was the bird's description in his earlier work Fauna Svecica.[11] In fact, the description he used in Systema Naturae was the name under which the bird went in the Fauna Svecica, demonstrating the value of his new binomial nomenclature by compressing the long-winded names formerly used in biological classification into much simpler scientific names like Anas crecca. Linnaeus also noted in his description that earlier authors had already written about the Eurasan teal at length: Conrad Gessner[12] had described it in the Historiae animalium as the anas parva ("small duck") among his querquedulae ("teals"); Ulisse Aldrovandi[13] had called it phascade or querquedula minor ("lesser teal"), and was duly referenced by Francis Willughby[14] who named the species querquedula secunda Aldrovandi ("the second teal of Aldrovandus"[note 1]). John Ray[16] may be credited with formally introducing the name "common teal", while Eleazar Albin[17] called it simply "the teal". As regards the type locality Linnaeus simply remarked that it inhabits freshwater ecosystems in Europe.[15]
The scientific name is from Latin Anas, "duck" and kricka, the Swedish name for this species.[18] The specific name of Linnaeus is onomatopoetic, referring to the male's characteristic call which was already discussed by Linnaeus' sources.[citation needed] The scientific name of the Eurasian teal—unchanged since Linnaeus' time— therefore translates as "duck that makes cryc"; common names like the Bokmål krikkand, Danish krikand and German Krickente mean the same.
Distribution and habitat:
Wintering birds at Purbasthali, Burdwan District of West Bengal (India)
The Eurasian teal breeds across northern Eurasia and mostly winters well south of its breeding range. However, in the milder climate of temperate Europe, the summer and winter ranges overlap. For example, in the United Kingdom and Ireland a small summer population breeds, but far greater numbers of Siberian birds arrive in winter. In the Caucasus region, western Asia Minor, along the northern shores of the Black Sea, and even on the south coast of Iceland and on the Vestmannaeyjar, the species can be encountered all year, too.[3]
In winter, there are high densities around the Mediterranean, including the entire Iberian Peninsula and extending west to Mauretania; on Japan and Taiwan; as well as in South Asia. Other important wintering locations include almost the entire length of the Nile Valley, the Near East and Persian Gulf region, the mountain ranges of northern Iran, and South Korea and continental East and Southeast Asia. More isolated wintering grounds are Lake Victoria, the Senegal River estuary, the swamps of the upper Congo River, the inland and sea deltas of the Niger River, and the central Indus River valley. Vagrants have been seen in inland Zaire, Malaysia, on Greenland, and on the Marianas, Palau and Yap in Micronesia;[19] they are regularly recorded on the North American coasts south to California and South Carolina.[3]
Altogether, the Eurasian teal is much less common than its American counterpart, though still very plentiful. Its numbers are mainly assessed by counts of wintering birds; some 750,000 are recorded annually around the Mediterranean and Black Seas, 250,000 in temperate western Europe, and more than 110,000 in Japan. In 1990 and 1991, a more detailed census was undertaken, yielding over 210,000 birds wintering in Iran, some 109,000 in Pakistan, about 77,000 in Azerbaijan, some 37,000 in India, 28,000 in Israel, over 14,000 in Turkmenistan and almost 12,000 in Taiwan. It appears to be holding its own currently, with its slow decline of maybe 1–2% annually in the 1990s – presumably mainly due to drainage and pollution of wetlands – not warranting action other than continuing to monitor the population and possibly providing better protection for habitat on the wintering grounds. The IUCN and BirdLife International classify the Eurasian teal as a species of Least Concern, unchanged from their assessment before the split of the more numerous A. carolinensis.[1][2][3]
The Eurasian teal is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.
Behaviour:
This dabbling duck is highly gregarious outside of the breeding season and will form large flocks. In flight, the fast, twisting flocks resemble waders; despite its short legs, it is also rather nimble on the ground by ducks' standards. In the breeding season, it is a common inhabitant of sheltered freshwater wetlands with some tall vegetation, such as taiga bogs or small lakes and ponds with extensive reedbeds. In winter, it is often seen in brackish waters and even in sheltered inlets and lagoons along the seashore.[3]
The Eurasian teal usually feeds by dabbling, upending or grazing; it may submerge its head and on occasion even dive to reach food. In the breeding season it eats mainly aquatic invertebrates, such as crustaceans, insects and their larvae, molluscs and worms. In winter, it shifts to a largely granivorous diet, feeding on seeds of aquatic plants and grasses, including sedges and grains. Diurnal throughout the breeding season, in winter they are often crepuscular or even nocturnal feeders.[3]
It nests on the ground, near water and under cover. The pairs form in the winter quarters and arrive on the breeding grounds together, starting about March. The breeding starts some weeks thereafter, not until May in the most northernly locations. The nest is a deep hollow lined with dry leaves and down feathers, built in dense vegetation near water. After the females have started laying, the males leave them and move away for shorter or longer distances, assembling in flocks on particular lakes where they moult into eclipse plumage; they will usually encounter their offspring only in winter quarters. The clutch may consist of 5–16 eggs, but usually numbers 8–11; they are incubated for 21–23 days. The young leave the nest soon after hatching and are attended by the mother for about 25–30 days, after which they fledge. The drakes and the hens with young generally move to the winter quarters separately. After the first winter, the young moult into adult plumage. The maximum recorded lifespan – though it is not clear whether this refers to the common or the green-winged teal—was over 27 years, which is rather high for such a small bird.[3]
References:
*Wikipedia
BirdLife International (2012). "Anas crecca". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Carboneras, Carles (1992). del Hoyo, Josep; Elliott, Andrew; Sargatal, Jordi, eds. Family Anatidae (Ducks, Geese and Swans). Handbook of Birds of the World. Volume 1: Ostrich to Ducks. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. pp. 536–629, plates 40–50. ISBN 84-87334-10-5.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m Madge, S.; Burn, H. (1987). Wildfowl, an Identification Guide to the Ducks, Geese and Swans of the World. London: Christopher Helm. ISBN 0713636475.
Jump up ^ "Anas crecca life history data". AnAge. 2009. Retrieved 6 January 2009.
Jump up ^ RSPB Handbook of British Birds (2104). UK ISBN 978-1-4729-0647-2.
^ Jump up to: a b Livezey, Bradley C. (1991). "A phylogenetic analysis and classification of recent dabbling ducks (Tribe Anatini) based on comparative morphology" (PDF). Auk. 108 (3): 471–507. doi:10.2307/4088089.
^ Jump up to: a b Johnson, Kevin P.; Sorenson, Michael D. (1999). "Phylogeny and biogeography of dabbling ducks (genus Anas): a comparison of molecular and morphological evidence" (PDF). Auk. 116 (3): 792–805. doi:10.2307/4089339.
Jump up ^ South American Classification Committee (2008). "Part 1. Struthioniformes to Cathartiformes, Version of 22 December 2008". A classification of the bird species of South America. Retrieved 5 January 2009.
Jump up ^ Laurie-Ahlberg, C.C.; McKinney, F. (1979). "The nod-swim display of male Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca)". Animal Behaviour. 27: 165. doi:10.1016/0003-3472(79)90136-2.
Jump up ^ Sangster, George; Knox, Alan G.; Helbig, Andreas J.; Parkin, David T. (2002). "Taxonomic recommendations for European birds". Ibis. 144: 153. doi:10.1046/j.0019-1019.2001.00026.x.
Jump up ^ Linnaeus, Carl (1746): 109. Anas macula alarum viridi: linea alba supra infraque oculos. In: Fauna Svecica Sistens Animalia Sveciæ Regni, etc. (1st ed.): 39–40 [in Latin]. Conrad & Georg Jacob Wishoff, Leiden ("Lugdunum Batavorum").
Jump up ^ Gessner, Conrad (1555). Historiae animalium (in Latin). vol. 3. Zürich [Tigurium]: Christoph Froschauer. pp. 103–105.
Jump up ^ Aldrovandi, Ulisse (Ulyssis Aldrovandus) (1637). Ornithologia (in Latin). vol. 3: Tomus tertius ac postremus (2nd ed.). Bologna [Bononia]: Nicolò Tebaldini. pp. 207–209.
Jump up ^ Willughby, Francis (1676). Ornithologiae libri tres (in Latin). London: John Martyn. p. 290.
^ Jump up to: a b Linnaeus 1758, pp. 126–127
Jump up ^ Ray, John (Joannis Raii) (1713). Synopsis methodica avium & piscium: opus posthumum, etc. (in Latin). vol. 1. London: William Innys. pp. 147–148.
Jump up ^ Albin, Eleazar (1731–1738): A natural history of the birds (3 volumes). William Innys, London. Vol.1, p.95, plate 100; vol. 2, p.91, plate 102
Jump up ^ Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 46, 121. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
Jump up ^ Wiles, Gary J.; Johnson, Nathan C.; de Cruz, Justine B.; Dutson, Guy; Camacho, Vicente A.; Kepler, Angela Kay; Vice, Daniel S.; Garrett, Kimball L.; Kessler, Curt C.; Pratt, H. Douglas (2004). "New and Noteworthy Bird Records for Micronesia, 1986–2003". Micronesica. 37 (1): 69–96.