AUTHORS NOTE: Due to the physical stresses of surgical recovery The Celebration Of silence will only be posting once daily for the month of March. We will resume our twice daily postings in April!
Welcome back readers! If you think back a few weeks you’ll remember a recent set of posts I did for the Recovery Series called “A Lesson Learned” in which I got lucky enough to take a walk with (and get a photography lesson from) local Vancouver camerawoman and author Mikah Sharkey. If you missed it, I suggest you get reading by clicking these links PART ONE – PART TWO – PART THREE So why do I start a post some two weeks later talking about a person and a post that is now (in the info-centric land of the interwebs) obsolete?
Because (you guessed it) IT WAS SO MUCH FUN WE DID IT AGAIN!
This time Mikah and I headed out to Queen Elizabeth Park in beautiful Vancouver British Columbia to catch some ducks and see what other fun we could drum up. Almost immediately I caught sight of this fascinating fellow and unearthed a mystery I need your help to solve!
If you`re like me you just whipped right past the bird above, going “It’s another bloody mallard you barking fool!” Yes, it’s a Mallard. Right down to the little curly tail bits.
But take another look at that beak….
I assure you there is no editing here folks. No post production, no color tweaking, no trick of lens or lighting (seriously, I’m so not that skilled). That is a blue beaked Mallard! HUH?! Immediately my lens found another Mallard close by for comparison.
Ok, that’s more like it. Nice, yellow beaked pretty little Mallard. No tail curls but thats a thing sometimes. But then what the HELL was going on with that other one?
The answer became clear at a look around the pond.
Widgeons. Lovely little birds with beautiful blue beaks! Ah-ha! I had my first comfirmable shot of a cross between duck breeds! Quite excitedly I took a look around to see if there were others and it didn’t take me long to find yet another interesting bird!
This one’s a little harder to figure for me….head cap and beak of a….Teal? Maybe? Coloring seems Widgeon….ish? About the only thing I can guess with any certainty is it’s a female. Possibly -,-
Anyone who has information, ideas, or a better guess than mine, please for the love of the gods leave it in the comments below or email celebrationofsilenceblog@gmail.com (and don’t you dare tell me it’s a duck) because this one is driving me bonkers and the even the non-crossbreeds are laughing at me!
Stay tuned tomorrow for more fun with Mikah and the sights and birds of Queen Elizabeth Park and be sure to check out our Facebook and Flickr for all the latest sightings and confounding conundrums!
The Celebration Of Silence 
Great that you have encountered the wonderful Gadwall. Just to add a note of caution, I would be very surprised if the ‘blue billed’ Mallard was a hybrid. Hybridisation between Mallard and Wigeon does occur (Mallard are notorious rapists) but is much rarer than in the diving Aythya ducks. I think the slight blue tinge is probably more likely to be light (note the head colour) or some external factor (food choice etc). If it was a hybrid, we could probably expect more clues in the plumage (where cross-breeding normally displays) but it is all Mallard.
Just thought I would share these considerations although do check out some of the scholarly articles on this topic in the major journals or probably online as well.
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Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge! I will definitely have to do some reading on hybridization and go back to the pond to see if I can spot him again! I love a good mystery!
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