As if I needed another reason to be looking forward to our return to New Jersey, there were American Black Ducks at every site we visited these past days. I’ve always been more than partial to the species, from the first time I saw it 30 years ago (!) this month.

Fond as I am of the bird, and not getting to see it all that often of late, I spent a bit of time looking through the flocks at Brigantine, at Sandy Hook, and at Etra. As usual, it wasn’t long before we started noticing the “mixes,” birds whose ancestry must have included both American Black Ducks and Northern Mallards. Most such birds look simply like Black Ducks with a green cap, silvery tertials, and variably pale tails–and, this one at least, an apparent fondness for a girl just like the girl….

Others are more striking. Yesterday Alison and I found this bird consorting with American Black Ducks at Etra Park, Monmouth County:

This bird is, obviously, much more Mallard-like, but with dark body plumage and a pale head. If it’s true that female “mallards” of all stripes and taxa prefer the studlier “Northern” Mallard drakes, then this one has a better chance, I’d guess, of reproducing than his Black-ish cousin above.