Unidentified Flying Ducks...

The animals came in two by two... A pair of mystery water birds.

Right folks, I’m after some help from anyone who knows anything about water birds! I'm posting these photos of birds that are geese or ducks for my Saturday Snapshot in the hopes that someone can tell me what they are. This area is full of water – rivers, canals, streams, lakes, and pools left from old industries, like mining and quarrying. Consequently, there’s a wealth of wildlife, and I can recognise most of the birds, but currently there are three strange ducks or geese on Borrowpit Lake in Tamworth which I’ve tried, and failed, to photograph over the last couple of months.

Anyway on Wednesday, two of them were stood on the grass, outlined against the water, so I crept up on them, and managed to get one shot before they jumped into the water and swam off. 

Oh bother, I thought, missed again... BUT, just out of view was the third bird, sitting on the bank, happy as Larry, so I crouched down, and kept as quiet as I could, and managed to get a few pictures before he (or she) rushed off to join the others. 

Sitting pretty... This stayed here long enough for me to get a
few pictures and as you can see, she's not black at all.

From a distance they look black, but if you get close enough you can see the most beautiful iridescent dark green feathers on the head, body, and parts of the wings. The rest of the wings are shaded in browns and greys, and there are splodgy white patches on the front of the neck. They’ve got bright yellow bills, with a black mark at the front, and the feet are a pinky colour. 

In this photo the bill and the white throat markings are clearer.

 Size-wise, they’re bigger than mallards, but smaller than Canada Geese, and I’ve not seen them feeding or flying, and they don’t seem to dive. Whatever they are, I assume they can’t be all that common, because they are the only three I’ve seen – there are none on the Coventry Canal, or the Anker, or the Tame. 

A close-up (well, as close as I could get ) of the foot, but it's
more pinkish than it looks here.

I’ve looked online, and in books, but I’m as mystified as ever, because nothing seems to match, so please, if anyone out there can identify them, could you let me know?

And meanwhile, here are two exotic-looking Muscovy Ducks pictured on the muddy towpath alongside the Coventry Canal at Polesworth when I went out for a walk this morning. They are there most of the time, and I think they must be escapees from a local house, or descendants of escapees! At any rate, they add a nice splash of colour to the scene.

I love these Muscovy Ducks - they look so exotic.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce at http://athomewithbooks.net/ where you can see photos from other participants all over the world.

Ducks on the Ice

Well, here we are, talking about the weather again! It's only a few weeks since normal life was halted by floods. Now everything is disrupted by snow, which may be no great shakes to those of you living in colder climes, but is the main talking point here in the UK, where we never seem to be prepared for anything - the weather always seems to take us by surprise - whether it's wind, rain, snow or sunshine! So really, my Saturday Snapshot photos this week could only be weather pictures.

In fact, weatherwise it's been a bit of an odd week. On Monday I woke to find everything covered in a fine layer of snow, not very deep, but definitely more than a sprinkling. We had snow, sleet, rain and more snow, but it was that wet kind of snow, which doesn't settle.

I went for a walk across the Castle/Pleasure Grounds, round by the side of the Snow Dome (who needs it in weather like this!), across the grass to the lake to look at the swans, back under the roadbridge, and then over this nice green and yellow bridge to the out-of-town shopping area. Thanks to the boots, my feet were warm and dry, but the rest of me was so cold and wet I bought new gloves and a woollen snood to try and get warm, then walked into town and caught a bus home!

On Tuesday, as you can see in the picture above, the sky was blue, and the sun shone, even if it didn't give out much warmth, and there wasn't a trace of snow or ice.

But on Wednesday the temperature dropped, and a heavy frost turned the landscape into a sparkling winter wonderland. This holly looked a variegated species, but the white around the edges is frost, and the little speckles on the surface (which look like hairs)  are little spikes of frost.

And I love way the berries and leaves on the plant pictured above were covered in frost as well, looking like a picture on a Christmas card.

Thursday was cold and dull, but on Friday winter set in with a vengeance - it was a white-out! It snowed... and snowed... and snowed... kids were sent home from school, buses and trains were cancelled, roads were impassable... so I braved the elements and walked as far as the canal, where I peered over the snow-covered bridge to take this picture because I was so intrigued by the winding shape of snow on the centre of the frozen water. I wish I knew why it had settled like that!

 Today it's not quite as cold, and it hasn't snowed, but there's no sign of a thaw and, according to the forecast, there's more snow on the way. But we were determined to get some fresh air and enjoy the wintry scene, so we went for a short walk along the towpath. The canal was frozen, except for the areas around the bridges, and the path was very snowy, but not icy or or slippery, so it wasn't too bad underfoot. I couldn't resist taking pictures of ducks in the snow and on the ice.

More Saturday Snapshot pictures are hosted by Alyce at http://athomewithbooks.net/