It certainly pays to look closely at a group of birds, because they may not all be from the same species. Last week I spotted this cool-looking duck in the midst of a group of mallards at my local marshland park.
I couldn’t identify the duck when I took the photos, but it was clearly not a mallard. After a bit of research on the internet, I have concluded that it is probably a Gadwall (Anas strepera), a species of ducks that I had never seen before.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
I’ve never even heard of a gadwall.
I’d heard of Gadwalls, but was not sure what they looked like. Here’s a link for a bit more information. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Gadwall/id
Nope, not a mallard at all, but awesome Gadwall find. Isn’t it fun when you find a new bird?
It’s awesome to spot a new bird (or any kind of new subject). With my new, longer zoom lens, I as able to get a recognizable shot before I spooked it.
Nature always keeps us attentive and on our toes, I love that. 🙂
It certainly does and that’s one of the many things that keeps photography so much fun for me.
Good point! It’s easy to assume everyone who looks similar at first is related, just because they are sitting / swimming / nesting / roosting together. Fun to find a sort of surprise “Where’s Waldo?” in there sometimes 😉
I have never seen a Gadwall…Very interesting. This is going to push me to go research this on the internet.
I had a bit of trouble finding the bird when I went looking, but I think that I found the right one. There are probably systematic ways to approach bird identification, but I haven’t learned them yet.
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