American Black Duck

A 72 F/22.2 C day on November 2, with another 2-3 days like this following.  Beautiful! 

In identifying different duck species, I have been going with the old maxim "birds of a feather flock together".  If I see a few mallards, I figure they are all mallards. This maxim did not work today.  There was a larger, much darker colored duck swimming with a mallard drake and female in the southeast corner of Prescott Mill wetland.  I wondered about this, got 8-10 pics and moved on to the opposite side of the wetland.

A couple of ebirders were on the west side identifying and counting birds.  Ebirder Jason looked at my pics and advised that this was an American black duck (large dark brown body, pale gray-brown head, and yellow-green bill). American black ducks are known for mixing in with other species such as mallards and gadwall, thus birds of a feather don't always flock together.

The ebirders also pointed out gadwall and ring-necked ducks, which were too far away for good photos.  Tomorrow I hope!