Duckling update

Remember this little fellow from my first ever post? We've been keeping an eye on its progress over the weeks and hoping for its survival.

Well, it did survive and this was our favourite duckling a few weeks ago, snuggled up with its brothers and sisters. More grey than yellow but still with fluffy juvenile feathers.

And this was a couple of days ago: very striking with its brown and white colouring. I wonder if it will stay this way or whether the pattern will change as it moves into adulthood?

The colouring doesn't give any clue to its gender. Most of the other ducks with this kind of pattern have tended to be female. However, there's a brown/white male this year who may or may not have been its father. He wasn't the male hanging around the duckling's mother but that doesn't mean anything! Hopefully, he or she will hang around until next year and produce multi-coloured ducklings of its own.

Interestingly, on the same evening, this white-headed Canada Goose was on the lake too and caused quite a stir.

There's always something to see on the lake even just how the colours and patterns of the water change with the different weather conditions: I feel so lucky to live near by.