Mallard drake

Another in my "Familiarity Breeds Contempt" series...
More loveable in large ("L").
This mallard was looking particularly handsome in the dim but crisp morning light.

I visited Eagle Pond both in the morning and in the middle of the afternoon; the light was bad on both occasions...
Something interesting/adorable happened just as I was arriving this morning: five of the Egyptian fledglings were standing on a brick structure by the pond (its top is at about waist height; I don't know what it is/was for), and the parents were by the side of the pond nearby. The father started making one of his more unusual sounds: it is a long, loud ca-ing sound that I've previously seen him use to encourage the fledglings to fly. Anyway, they ignored him for the most part, but one put its head upright (like the father does) and mimicked the sound (albeit squeakily!). It was amazingly touching, and it was cold in the morning so its breath created a large cloud of steam too.
I've put a picture of one of them flying down from the brick structure on my blipfolio here.