Water birds

Thought I might share some water birds with people. This is some kind crested duck, but couldn't find any like this in my birds books.

Here's another duck -- not sure what kind this is, either.

There are two black swans in the park -- here's one of them. I look in the bird book at swans and couldn't see any that had such red beaks.

A full shot of this swam -- white feathers in the wings.

And we have white swans as well.

And sea gulls. They come in and out of this area depending on the weather -- bad weather usually finds them around here.

A flock of ibis

Another ibis -- walking.

Those are lovely water birds, thanks mrw for sharing the pics. How about some "water chickens"? These guys hang around here in winter and migrate northward when spring arrives here in our area lakes.

Here they're taken off sensing some threats, but they will come back and fish all winter here. American Coots.

Oooops, in close inspection, I've misindentifying those birds. They're Geese. Sorry.
Kim

Canadian geese - right?

Yes, those they're!

Farmyard breed of Mallard. You won't find it in a bird book, any more than you'll find a Holstein cow or a Labrador dog in a book of wild animals!

Crossbreed farmyard goose, hybrid between farmyard breed Greylag Goose and farmyard breed Chinese Goose. Ditto to the above!

Again, an escape from captivity, this time from a zoo not a farm. They come from Australia.

Farmyard breed of Greylag Goose . . . yet again, ditto to the top one!

Laughing Gulls . . . probably laughing at all those plastic ducks and geese ;-)

White Ibis

Canada Geese

Resin

Nice pics guys!

guess I should study more before I post .

No problem! Just post to find out!

Resin

These are my "Water Chickens"; American Coots. Notice one in the flock was surfacing from diving for 'breakfast'.

mrw31, you are right it is a crested duck. The crest is caused by a dominant mutation that shows up in any breed of mallard decent. A duckling will have a crest in every 100,000 to 1,000,000 eggs hatched. Today, many people are breeding cresteds with cresteds to make the mutation more common. These birds are so popular that supply cannot always keep up with demand. The White and the Black are the only two varieties recognized by the American Poultry Association.

I enjoyed looking at all of your photos. Thank you for sharing.

Kim, I kind of feel sorry for coots. They so want to be ducks. ;o)

LOL, I've come to appreciate them. They're such socialable chickens. lol. They're entertaining too. In years past I've only noticed a couple, these year they have passed the "words around" and hundreds of them come to winter all over our lake. :-)
Kim2
p.s. Kim I really missed your presentation at Terrye's. I'll make all the efforts to attend the next one hopefully.

Thanks, Kim. You will have quite a drive if you want to attend the next one...it is about 2 minutes from my house. LOL

You'd be surprise. I've children live out in NM. May be I can make a trip out to see them, and swing by to visit with you and other Arkies' gardening friends. How 'bout that?
Kim

Would love it!