Hard luck

Poor little gal.

It's been t-shirt weather here for the past week. Even in Alabama, 75 degree weather in January is just not right. (That's 24°C.)

The duck pictured standing on ice a few weeks ago is the one who started out black and turned "tweed". Now she's getting more and more white feathers and I'm interested to see if she'll become completely white in the end.

Another one of the formerly all-black ducks is starting to develop a few white feathers now too, so he may be headed down the same path.

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Note:
Before posting this entry, I decided to try doing a bit of research to see if this was a common phenomenon among black Indian Runner ducks. Now I'm suspecting that there may have been significant interbreeding with some Cayuga ducks, which apparently start out black and become more white-flecked as they age. (Scroll down to the photos at the bottom of that link.) Email me privately for the name of the mail-order hatchery we used, if you want to avoid receiving these alledged Indian Runner ducks!

Another note:
For anyone new to reading this blog - the ducks are just kept in this pen at night (for their safety), and are free to roam during the day.