Wednesday 10 August 2011

Have you seen this duck?!

Not very common any more, we were pleased to see a couple of White-backed Ducks here at Kisima Ngeda yesterday. It's usually a bird of clean wooded ponds, with lots of water lillies, but this is the second record for the area here. Have you seen it anywhere? We've no real idea aut why it may be declining, but perhaps there's a shortage of clean ponds that don't get cattled? It's also a mystery why Maccoa ducks are decling (even faster!), so if you've any thoughts do let us know! These two are probably just dispersing  and found a nice place to break their search for new water as the more usual ponds dry out.

White-backed Duck, Eyasi 2011



 This one was just too cute not to post! You can see he's a very young juvenile from the large gape which makes the bill a wider target for the parents to post insects into. After a month or two he'll still look juvenile with the dull cap and pale-edged wing feathers, but the gape will have gone and his beak will look normal.
Juvenile Wire-tailed Swallow, Kisima Ngeda, Aug 2011

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