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haven't had much chance to get out lately, but it was so pleasant this evening that i went down to the lake at the foot of my apartment complex. it's not very big... a couple of acres, perhaps... but there were quite a few ducks, some cormorants, and a pied-billed grebe. nothing like the park i used to go to, but it has potential nevertheless. anyway, i got this shot of an odd mallard hybrid... rather unique markings... 40D, 400mm, 1/160 @ f/5.6...
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Maybe he's related to the one who hangs out in my back yard. He's been around for two years now, and while he doesn't have quite as much white as yours, he has a similiar pattern. I wonder what causes that?
I have read that those kinds of markings are caused by cross breeding of Mallards with domestic ducks. The wildlife biologists I've talked to encourage hunters to take them any time they can.
Apparently, Mallards will cross breed with domestics more often than other breeds do.
Pops
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That makes sense, and I guess I can see why they prefer to keep the two breeds separate but I'm wondering if that's going to be possible in the long run.
There will always be crossbreeding, because Mallards are not averse to mingling with domestic ducks, even in back yards. I've seen them come arunnin' when going out to feed the ducks, when I had ducks.
Pops
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The cross-bred one that hangs around here is a lot less timid than the other Mallards. You can't exactly pet him, but he and his wife don't immediately fly off when they see people, instead they just walk away to keep a reasonable distance from you, and if they see you're putting out food, they'll get fairly close.
Duck fanciers have bred a bewildering variety of colors from the Mallard. Most of the park ducks you see are domestic Mallards backcrossed with wild Mallards. The Mallard drake isn't very picky about what species of hen he breeds. Occasionally you may see a bunch of Mallards drakes "gang raping" a hen.
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