There were rushing sounds of both a little waterfall and a fountain in the middle of the pond during my choice of the pond at Wright’s Park for my Thanksgiving Bird Count 2012. It was Nice weather without rain, and on each side of the pond was the sandwich board reminding visitors of a fine of over four hundred dollars for feeding any wildlife. I stayed for an hour during the morning, after ten.
Inside the count cylinder were -
1 Leucistic mallard, female
1 seagull flew over yellow on beak
3 female, 2 male mallards
Outside -
6 juncos
2 dozen seagulls
6 additional mallard 3 m, 3 f
On the internet I had learned that the Blond Duck that had puzzled me was a leucistic mallard, a mallard with missing pigmentation in some of the feathers. The coloring is very pretty - cream upper wings, cream in tail feathers, with brown like mallards in flecks. I had wondered if this was another kind of duck, I never saw a mallard with cream colored feathers before.
