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Thursday, November 22, 2012

And today's duck is?


Today’s duck is one I have never seen before. I spotted it in Stadtpark a few days ago.

I described it to Merisi and she said it sounded like a Mandarin duck - but I have checked my bird book and it does not seem to have the right features.

The best I can come up with is a Pochard – but any help would be appreciated.

So the reason I posted ‘spot the badger’ was that I have (finally) started to get together the family history.

This is a project that was started by my ancient and venerable brothers some years ago and in which I was sort of involved. They have done a lot of work but we do not yet have a central site which is accessible to everyone.

So I have decided to finally bring it to a conclusion and have acquired the appropriate software and membership of ‘ancestry.com’.

Give the nature of our fractured family – and the paucity of cameras at the time – we have very few pictures from our early years and I was rustling through the few that we do have and found the one of the Badger in 1953 that was in fact acquired only recently.

The three brothers did a tour of the NSW Riverina district - where we were all raised and spent our early years.

The school in Deniliquin was having an open day so we popped in and they were able to produce that photo.

I am glad that I do not these days look like I do in that photo.


12 comments:

  1. Our Turkey Day has a smaLL crowd, just Tamie, Cooper and Ernest. I just smeLLed the bird cooking, ah. Today is also the 30th anniversary of the day I proposed. Luckily she said yes.

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  2. Maybe it's the result of a Mandarin-Mallard union. Jim said that they do more than mingle, occasionally.

    I looked up "Crested Duck" - not what we are looking for, but too cute to not look it up: Haubenente.

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  3. I looked up Jim's Bird of the Day blog -> Maalie's Bird of the Day.
    Nice Mandarin Duck there.
    Could it be a Pochard Duck in need of a haircut?

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  5. I have been having some fun on ancestry.com too.

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  6. Its a Mallard. and the brown one is a female or juvenile in moult

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  7. esb:I hope your Turkey was bigger than that duck. Ancestry is a terrific site.

    Merisi: Yes - I agree - a Tufted Duck - and a fine specimen.

    Simon: Is not one a mallard and the other a tufted?

    freefalling: As a tufted duck?

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  8. Like the idea of a teenage mallard rebel, Simon! :-)

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  9. Very cute, both the duck and the young lad!
    Pam and I often wondered if you were related to an uncle of ours by marriage, Kevin P, but he was raised in Brisbane and unfortunately passed on recently so can't ask for any family details. Always the way but next time I see his kids, will make some enquiries about family from the Deniliquin area.

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  10. Sandy: I have no doubt that we are related - but from long ago in Cornwall where most of us came from.

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