Tuesday 24th June 2025, 3.50pm (day 5,052)
“OK, are you ready? I want you to get my best side…. THAT’S the one. Send me a copy….”
Duck pose
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: duck
Muscovy ducks in Jamestown
Wednesday 15th May 2024, 12.25pm (day 4,647)
The colony of Muscovy ducks that used to live around the marina in Hebden Bridge, and peaked at about six individuals, seems to have disappeared — but members of the species have managed to find St Helena, in the middle of the ocean. Why does the one on the right not have the same facial bulges as the other? I suspect, just because it’s younger. They grow their faces over time. As do we humans, of course.
Contemplative mallard
Tuesday 27th February 2024, 11.55am (day 4,569)
After yesterday’s exertions I did not feel like going very far at all; like this mallard, I was content just to sit and watch the world go by, to be honest. (And tomorrow won’t be much different.)
Group portrait (mallards)
Wednesday 8th November 2023, 10.15am (day 4,458)
On another dull day, in all respects, the waterfowl of Hebden Bridge once again save things photographically. As I’ve said on here before, I do like mallards, they seem quite an agreeable species. The duck to the far right definitely looks smug about something.
Poser
Wednesday 20th September 2023, 6.35pm (day 4,409)
I am irresistibly reminded of a drag queen at Pride, or one of those amazing Brazilian samba women at the Notting Hill Carnival, posing for the camera in front of a line of stern grey coppers…. Happy Wednesday, little feller.
On the water, Brighouse
Saturday 12th November 2022, 1.15pm (day 4,097)
High pressure and warm air idling up from Spain, apparently, made this surely the warmest and most pleasant November 12th in my lifetime — even on St Helena last year it was not as nice as this. I refuse to consider this a bad thing: not on the day, at least. I’m sure the ducks think it’s better than the alternative as well.
Three fowl (not a birthday reference)
Friday 26th August 2022, 12.35pm (day 4,019)
Let’s get on with another year, shall we? Three fowl (I assume, one duck, two geese) drifting by serenely on the Rochdale Canal is not any metaphor for life that I can think of, but it is a way of representing a peaceful (birth)day.
Nesting
Friday 1st April 2022, 4.10pm (day 3,872)
Now, she’s on the nest. If it wasn’t for the presence of the nearby, and bright green, drake (unpictured), I would never have seen this nesting mother among the undergrowth. Seeing as ducks don’t have a great deal of offensive capacity, doubtless this camouflage is her only real protection against having the brood eaten by someone/thing or other. She was definitely keeping an eye on me, put it that way.
Taking a walk
Thursday 8th July 2021, 4.05pm (day 3,605)
Just an ordinary Thursday on Main Street, Haworth. Is there still an obligation to follow a pet like this around with a pooper-scooper?
The coot improvises
Saturday 5th September 2020, 11.35am (day 3,299)
The Leeds and Liverpool canal takes a very roundabout route to link its titular cities. Here it is going through Burnley, a stretch which is a nice bit of greenery in the middle of that what is, otherwise, a workaday town. But it also feels very neglected, becoming swamped in places by algae (a sign that there are too many nitrates in the water) and litter (a sign that some people shouldn’t be let out of doors). This coot takes advantage of examples of both.
Being 42 