Taking four for a walk

Last week I saw a mallard duck with 6 - 8 ducklings, about this size. This duck has just four ducklings. I hope this is a second duck, but it could be that half the clutch have been taken.

This duck is probably a mallard/parera hybrid as the bill is grey, whereas a mallard has a yellow-orange bill.The legs are mallard colour. The face stripes also suggest it is a hybrid, as does the narrow posterior speculum border.

It is not long ago that all ducks were ducks to me.