Baby Eider video

 As most of you know I spent a few days at my ’old caravan’ however on my way there I called in at the Wetland Trust, Castle Espie and today these are a few photographs and video I took there. (more to come when I get them processed!)  This is a view from the restaurant.

Below is a new duck to their collection and they have 2 males and 2 females all 1 year old.  

It is the Comb Duck

Comb Duck, is an unusual, pan-tropical duck, found in tropical wetlands in sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar and south Asia from Pakistan to Laos and extreme southern China.  It also occurs in continental South America south to the Paraguay River region in eastern Paraguay, southeastern Brazil and the extreme northeast of Argentina, and as a vagrant on Trinidad. 

The goose-like comb duck gets its common name from the large, fleshy, dark grey growth or ‘comb’ on the top of the male’s black beak, an unusual and distinctive structure which enlarges during the breeding season.  Male comb ducks are large birds, with glossy blue-black or green-black upper parts, tail and wings, white underparts and pale grey or black flanks.  The top of the head and back of the neck are black, and the rest of the head is white, speckled black, with yellow tinges on the sides and on the neck during the breeding season.  Narrow black bands run along the sides of the upper breast.  The comb duck’s legs and feet are dark grey, and the eyes dark brown. Females are much smaller than males, with less glossy plumage, less well-defined black breast bands, more speckling on the head, which lacks any yellowish tinge, and sometimes with brownish mottling on the underparts.  

Females may appear almost white, and also lack the male’s ‘comb’. Young comb ducks are brownish, with a dark eye-stripe, and attain adult plumage in the second year.   WWT are hoping that these pairs will breed here.

Mallard female with her 2 chicks

Tufted duck with her 1 chick

Eider male in eclipse plumage

 After breeding, ducks (as well as Geese and Swans) moult (replace the old, worn-out feathers with new ones).

Ducks are peculiar in that they moult all their flight feathers - the long, wing feathers - at once. For about a month, they can't fly and very vulnerable to predators.

To provide some protection, particularly for the brightly-coloured males, the moult starts with their bright body feathers. These are replaced by dowdy brown ones, making them look much like females. This eclipse plumage is why in mid-summer, it seems that all the drakes have gone.

Once the flight feathers have regrown, the birds moult again, and by October the full colours are back and the various species of ducks are easily recognisable once more.

I have never been able to photograph Dragonflies and I am afraid I am not going to attempt to name this one however I am hoping that those that do photograph these wonderful Dragonflies and knows all about them will help me out with the correct name. PLEASE.  Thanks to Roy, Frank and Em I have discovered that it is a male Four-spotted Chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata).

                                     

  Male Four-spotted Chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata).

They have a Duckery at Castle Espie and I took the short video of these Eider ducklings.  It was wonderful to be able to stand so close to them and study them. You can access the video at

http://youtu.be/B3_IohitswQ

Thank you for visiting today.

Thank you to ALL who left comments yesterday on any of my posts. 

I appreciate it them ALL.

I am linking to the Bird D'Pot today.