This one is pretty easy—so easy, in fact, that I won’t give the answer. It’s a photo of a single mallard hen resting under a tree in yesterday’s heat. I put it up just to demonstrate how cryptic these females are in a woodsy situation. The colorful drakes, of course, would stick out like a sore thumb: the price they pay (via predation risk) for being attractive to the hens. Clearly the risk of predation is outweighed by the “need” to attract a hen.
Click on the photo to enlarge it.
The hen is nearly invisible due to the shade in this area. The shade is the same color as the duck.
I saw 2 hens.
Ditto
Same here
Maybe! I know enough about hens from having followed this website to say that I spotted one for sure. But there are others that I am not sure about.
I missed one!
There are at least three hens. The most difficult one to spot is in the greenery lower right. Maybe this will help, you can draw a straight line through them.
Oy! I was fooled by my own ducks! Thanks!
Here is something I’ve been wondering. There seems to be a bird of some sort, on the water, just beyond the corner of the wall.
It’s the next day, so I think spoilers are allowed.
I see three ducks.
There’s one sitting under the tree.
There’s one sitting in the long grass between the first hen and the bright foreground leaf at the RHS.
There’s one in the water just beyond the paved corner.
Jerry seems to have his ducks in a row.