DUCKS AND GEESE
A very easy way to differentiate ducks to think of them as
- dabblers - bobbing about and putting their heads into the water to find food which is usually water weeds, but could be other things too.
- divers - birds that actually dive under the water to look for food which is more likely to be fish or small water creatures than are hunted.
- geese - generally larger than ducks.
The Cambridge dictionary defines a duck as a bird that lives by water and has webbed feet, a short neck and a large beak. This is not really satisfactory when we add in mergansers which is a medium-sized duck and a member of a group called the 'sawbills' because of their long, narrow bills with saw-like 'teeth' which are good for gripping fish. A long, streamlined bird, it is perfectly shaped for swimming after fish. As do grebes, they also have paddle toes, rather than webbed toes.
The difference between a duck and goose is unsatisfactory - the latter are generally larger
Anyway this is sufficient enticement to us to look for the great variety of ducks and geese that can be found in West Dunbartonshire. The following are discussed elsewhere in this website using the links alongside them.
ECLIPSE PLUMAGE
Ducks are one of those species that explerience a strange phenomenon, a phase known as eclipse plumage. After the breeding season the male begins to moult, replacing the old worn out feathers with new ones. Ducks are peculiar in that they will moult all their flight feathers at once, and so for a month are unable to fly and are very vulnerable to predators. [Scottish Wildlife Trust]. For more on this see the link below.
The West Dunbartonshire website gives a useful guide to The birds of Dalmuir Park Pond. See link below.
CAMBRIDGE DICTIONARY : https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/duck
SCOTTISH WILDLIFE TRUST : https://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/2016/12/everything-you-needed-to-know-about-eclipse-plumage/
WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL : https://www.west-dunbarton.gov.uk/leisure-parks-events/parks-and-greenspaces/parks/dalmuir-park/dalmuir-park-restoration-project/park-facilities-and-features/duck-pond/birds-of-dalmuir-pond/
