About Leucistic Mallards

 At Lake Murray in San Diego, I've seen several leucistic-type mallards over the years. When I say leucistic, I mean true wild ducks with a lack of color. Lake Murray has also had its share of dumped domestic buff and khaki Campbell ducks with light coloring. These are not leucistic mallards.

Bossy Girl is a domestic buff  

If you are unsure if you are looking at a domestic buff duck versus a wild leucistic mallard, consider these guidelines:

• Domestic ducks often cannot fly or fly well

• Domestic ducks usually have a longer and bulkier build

• Many domestic duck breeds lack special speculum feathers

• Leucistic mallards are shaped and sized the same as wild mallards

• Leucistic mallards often have blue speculums, though it depends on which color they lack

• Leucistic mallards fly just as well as any other mallard

A few domestic duck breeds can fly very well, but they often differ from wild mallards in other respects.

Leuci II is a great example of a wild leucistic mallard. Currently, she is about four years old. The original leuci lived for 10 years before she passed. Leuci II is about four years old. In my research, I have found at least one expert says that leucistic mallard feathers are more prone to damage. However, that doesn't seem to have any effect lifespan of the ducks here.

Leuci II is a full wild mallard

Both Lecuis were successful at breeding and producing normal-colored ducklings. However, original Leuci was not a good mother and never successfully raised a duckling to adulthood. Leuci II, however, has been successful. So far, it is unknown if that leucistic gene has been passed on to her grand-babies. However, several other ducks at the lake lack certain colors in their feathers, so it's possible.

Yay for killdeer and scruffy ducks!

I found two killdeer in George's feeding area, one skinny and one fat.  The skinny one flew away, but I got this picture of the fat one.  At first, I thought it was Killer or possibly Tiny, both of whom have plump mates.  When I took a closer look at the photo, I saw a lot of similarities to Martha.  I'm betting George was the skinny killdeer who flew away.  If this is Martha, then she and George have been together for almost 5 years, which is unusual for a killdeer pair.

A couple of days ago, I found the first white-crowned sparrows of the season.

This little male Cooper's hawk was harassing some much larger crows:

Trouble is still around and being seen all over the lake.  He's going to be very pretty if he quits messing with his feathers.  These photos were taken two days ago:

Today, I caught Trouble pulling out feathers from his belly, making a feather hole.

He's been pulling out the fluffy feathers around his chest and belly.  I'm hoping this means new, better feathers are going to grow in.

For some reason, Trouble has been shadowing Gaddy the gadwall.  I think it's because Gaddy was a regular companion of his mother and Trouble just recognizes him from when he was growing up.

This little girl is following Blue around.  I think she likes him.  Unfortunately, Blue is a little aloof, especially during the last week.  I think he misses his Ducky Ducky girl.  This female is having some eye issues.

By the way, the baby geese say "hi".  I couldn't get them all in the photo.

Redheads!

I heard a strange sound early in the morning that I couldn't figure out.  A little later, I thought I heard what sounded like quail, but it was coming from all over the place.

The sound actually came from the male redhead duck!

Heehuuuahh! Said the male redhead

Female redhead by herself.  She didn't like that male redhead:

Redhead among the coots:

This redhead couple sure were in a hurry to get somewhere:

I think this and another group of redheads were after them.  The males constantly called:

Rubberband and two of her brothers were nearby.  I think her third brother was off on his own, probably because he saw a female he liked.

The blonde duck has been hanging around the boat docks lately:

Pepper was with his brother.  He's so shy.