What I'd been calling a spot-billed mallard is really a mottled duck, I found out today.
I remember seeing a mother at the park pointing to the greenhead in the pond and explaining to her children how you could distinguish the brightly colored male from the plain brown female, pointing to the mottled duck. Inwardly, I said, "She's teaching them something WRONG!" But if I'd have said, "that's not a greenhead female; that's a spot-billed mallard", I WOULD'VE BEEN WRONG TOO!
Isn't that like what we humans do, pointing fingers at others' errors? They've got it all wrong, we smile inwardly.
Here is today's sketch of a foraging...mottled duck. Today, a dragonfly came--probably the last to make its appearance before the onset of cold--as well as a butterfly, so I decided to put them into the picture. It seems a carp nearby wanted to be included too, so I managed to squeeze her in on the side. After all, the place is named "Carp Walk". But what's in a name, right? A rose is a rose; a duck is a duck...
