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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...
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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.
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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]
**********************************************************************************************
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...
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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 Mallard, 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.
The male birds have a bright green head, while the female's is light brown.
The Mallard lives in wetlands, eats water plants, and is gregarious.
It is also migratory. The Mallard is the ancestor of all domestic ducks, and can interbreed with other species of genus Anas.
Español....
El ánade real o azulón (Anas platyrhynchos)es una especie de ave anseriforme de la familia Anatidae. Es un pato de superficie común y muy extendido. Habita áreas de
temperatura templada de Norteamérica, Europa y Asia. También frecuenta Centroamérica y el Caribe. Probablemente es el más conocido de todos los patos.
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
ENR dabbled with High Speed trains in the late 70s for the Cairo to Alexandria route with a few 10 car sets of French built ANF Industrie TURBO TRAINS.
Top design speed was 160kmh but this was never achieved with 140 kmh being the norm.
Displaying a high tech tail light !, one of the sets is seen at Alexandria.
Fortunately they don't get much rain as the wipers don't look up to a bit of high speed running !
April 1992
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.
Had a dabble with gum bichromate this morning with the first attempt being with some modern architecture and it came out a bit bobbins like a really naff charcoal drawing with little detail. The second one above, I took a little more time and effort dodging the highlights more with the brush so I was a bit more pleased with the result and may venture further into the depths of experimental wonderment ....or I may not, depends if I remember
Gadwall, Anas strepera, mated pair. Oso Flaco Lake, San Luis Obispo County, California, USA.
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Although it seems early, a group of Buffleheads in the Cumberland Marsh seem to have finished with male display and "feistiness"and settled into pairs. They slowly glide and dabble in and out of the marsh grasses - quiet and peaceful.
Teals are small dabbling ducks. Males have chestnut coloured heads with broad green eye-patches, a spotted chest, grey flanks and a black edged yellow tail. Females are mottled brown. Both show bright green wing patches (speculum) in flight. In winter birds congregate in low-lying wetlands in the south and west of the UK . seen at slimbridge
The Mallard ( /ˈmæl.ɑːrd/ or /ˈmæl.ərd/), 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.
The male birds have a bright green or blue head, while the female's is light brown. The Mallard lives in wetlands, eats water plants, and is gregarious. It is also migratory. The Mallard is the ancestor of all domestic ducks, and can interbreed with other species of genus Anas. However, a potentially terminal side effect of this vast interbreeding capability is gradual genetic dilution, which is causing rarer species of ducks to become at risk for extinction.
The Mallard is 56–65 centimetres (22–26 in) long (of which the body makes up around two-thirds), has a wingspan of 81–98 centimetres (32–39 in), and weighs 0.9–1.2 kilograms (32–42 oz). The breeding male is unmistakable, with a bright bottle-green head, black rear end and a yellowish orange (can also contain some red) bill tipped with black (as opposed to the black/orange bill in females). It has a white collar which demarcates the head from the purple-tinged brown breast, grey brown wings, and a pale grey belly. The dark tail has white borders.[8] The female Mallard is a mottled light brown, like most female dabbling ducks, and has buff cheeks, eyebrow, throat and neck with a darker crown and eye-stripe.[8] However, both the female and male Mallards have distinct purple speculum edged with white, prominent in flight or at rest (though temporarily shed during the annual summer moult). Upon hatching, the plumage coloring 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 becomes drab, looking more like the female (though its plumage is more streaked). Two months after hatching, the fledgling period has ended and the duckling is now a juvenile. Its bill and legs will lose their dark gray coloring and it wings will begin to grow and develop flight feathers. Its sex can finally be distinguished by three factors:
Bill coloring: Yellow for males, Black and orange for females
Breast Feathers: Reddish-brown for males, Brown for females
Tail feathers: Curled for males, Straight for females
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 recognizable colors. 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 molting period. The average life expectancy of the Mallard is 20 years.
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.
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.
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.
Due to the malleability of the Mallard's genetic code, which gives it its vast interbreeding capability, mutations in the genes that decide plumage color are very common and have resulted in a wide variety of hybrids such as Brewer's duck (Mallard x Gadwall, Anas strepera).
Mallards usually form pairs (in October and November) only until the female lays eggs at the start of nesting season which is around the beginning of spring (early March to late May), at which time she is left by the male who will join up with other males to await the molting period which begins in June. During the brief time before this, however, the males are still sexually potent and some of them will either remain with the female on standby to sire replacement clutches (for female Mallards that have lost or abandoned their previous clutch) or forcibly mate with females of a different species that appear to be isolated or unattached.
The nesting period can be very stressful for the female; since she lays more than half her body weight in eggs and 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 on areas that are well concealed, are inaccessible to ground predators, and/or have few to no predators living nearby. This unfortunately includes urban areas that have roof gardens, enclosed courtyards, and flower boxes on window ledges/balconies more than one story up which prevents the ducklings from leaving safely or at all 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 will compel 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 will learn about and remember their traditional migratory routes (unless they are born and raised in captivity). After this, they will either continue staying with the mother (until the breeding season arrives) or set off on their own to seek out new sources of food and water, both natural and artificial.
When they pair off with mating partners, often one or several drakes will end up "left out". This group will sometimes target an isolated female duck, even when she's of a different species, and proceed to chase and peck at her until she weakens, at which point each male will 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 will 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.
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.
Queens Zoo Flushing New York
Nothing says dabbling duck like the Northern Shoveler that has a bill that is in a league of its own. The bird is often referred to as Spoonbill or Spoony for its oversized, spatulate shaped bill. Although the Shoveler is North America’s third most common duck species, I rarely have the opportunity to lay eyes on this bird, let alone from a short distance away.