BIRD NEWS:431

Continuing with the Arundel Festival trip, the first photograph depicts the mallards, pigeons and Carolina ducks munching away at seed - while the next shot shows them all flying away in a fluster as something scared them.

It was not long before they realized the danger did not exist and they were back at the food source around our feet.

The photo above illustrates the difference between mother and child Carolina duck - the two ducks at the front of the photo. Below, a close up shot of the species. Alas no males about - you will have to wait until I go to the WWT to get a shot of one of those again.

A second chance to see the differences and similarities between the female adult and child Carolina duck brings us almost to the close of the day out. Although we did many other activities, most of the rest were not related to birds in any way - but to musical performances, street stalls, coffee drinking, etc. My final shot for today's post is of a duck race with a difference.

As soon as the tide turned, 2-3 thousand toy ducks were tipped out of sacks into the River Arun from the bridge. People had been able to sponsor a toy duck in the race with a chance to win a prize for the first three to make it down the river to the finishing place. Divers had been brought in to dislodge ducks that got stuck on the riverbank or behind boats and we watched the start and heard the result on the loud speaker a little later.