Manky Mallards

In a brief interlude between car valeting and the electrician arriving to sort out our charging point, we head for the Brickfield Pond in Rhyl. Members of camera club have spotted a pair of crested grebes here and I’m eager to find them, but there’s no sign of them when we arrive. 

Leaving G to sit in the sun, I walk around the pond, hoping they might be hiding in the reeds. But no - I’m left to photograph the bird life that is there, principally mallards. There are some very obvious plain and simple mallards, but there are also variations; lighter, darker, different markings - but all seemingly just mallards. 

Research brings up the term ‘Manky Mallards’ - a term apparently coined by birder Charlie Moores to describe the motley menagerie of feral and domestic mallards, when they interbreed. It could equally well be applied to my feelings of frustration when instead of glorious grebes, I’m left with manky mallards! 

Still, it’s all too easy to dismiss the commonplace, and ignore the beauty of the female  mallards markings as she preens in the warm March sunshine - and so it’s this that makes my main today, a collage of ‘manky mallards’ relegated to extras.