ML579763541

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Two Mallard-like ducks flew into the northeast arm of pool one after a short rain shower. I first noted how dark the upper parts were and the lack of white on the upper wing. I next noted the pale cream-colored underwing which drastically contrasted with the dark body and upper wing. I watched them for about forty minutes to an hour trying to glean as much info as I could with the distant looks. For most of the time there was significant cloud cover, and the moments the clouds broke the sun was to my back leading to good lighting. Both birds were quite dark in the body with a lighter contrasting neck and head and a dark top of the head continuing in a line down the back of the neck. Too distant to make out the eye line well. One bird was darker than the other appearing pretty much black at distance. The second bird was slightly lighter with more rufous and brown tones including a rufous tinge to the face and neck. The darker bird I probably would have passed off as black duck if it had been winter. As they preened and bathed I got more looks at the pale underwing and dark upper wing lacking white of the dark bird and I think I may have seen a sliver of a white trailing edge to the secondaries on the lighter individual. Beak color was hard to gauge but with my best looks they appeared light and possibly a yellow-orange on the light bird and a more greenish tinge on the dark bird. No white was readily apparent in the tail. All of this stayed consistent with angles and variable lighting during the duration of watching. Timing and rufous tones of the one bird make me lean heavily toward a pair of MODU, but little rufous in the dark bird and distant views make eliminating an out of season black duck or mixed parentage very difficult. Scope looks were barely passable and digiscopes less so, but I will attach some nonetheless. A few show the light underwing. Ruben and Victor were able to confirm MODU at the same location 6/1 so I am changing species to MODU from Mottled/Black Duck.

Technical information

Model

Pixel 6a

Lens

Pixel 6a back camera 4.38mm f/1.73

ISO

59

Focal length

4.4 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/1.7

Shutter speed

3677/1000000 sec

Dimensions

849 pixels x 679 pixels

Original file size

77.45 KB