Hybrid Ducks

Since losing one of the white ducks a couple of weeks ago, I have been particularly concerned with the welfare of the last remaining white duck. She has been trying hard to get a new mate, and has homed in on another hybrid like herself. This I find fascinating, because she has all the regular Mallards to choose from, but has set her sights on one particular male hybrid. He is one of the five or six drake offspring survivors of Blondie, a beautiful duck that was killed a few years back. 

He is slightly larger than a pure Mallard drake but without the white ring around the neck, this is how to tell the hybrid drakes compared to the regular Mallards. He lets her tag along but as yet he is not besotted with her, he is learning though that if he sticks close to her when I'm feeding them, he gets a good share ! With high tides during the night throughout the coming week, I only hope she is spared long enough to complete the bonding with her new found love !