Flocks of Floaters

The pond's surface broke with webbed feet

Fowl flocks of floaters.

Ring-necked ducks, such gleaming black, pointy heads,

their bills, not necks, encircled by a white ring

Wigeon drakes with a teal green mask and a cream center cap, squeaking like a child's toy,

swimming around their hens dressed in coppery brown and gray.

Amongst the crowd is the small but brilliant Bufflehead,

Diving and breaking the water.

A small duck with a large head, multi-colored

in a wrap of iridescent purple and green

splashed in white across the nape;

easily spotted in the distance by his white sides, while

his lady is drab brown, with white spots on her cheeks

Then - always in the midst, a Male Mallard sporting his iridescent emerald head, dabbling and quacking

The first photo in this poem is of an American Wigeon. The second is the Ring-necked Duck. The third is the Bufflehead. The last photo is the Mallard. Mallards sometimes breed with other ducks to create unusual crossbreeds (like the photo below), yet bird watchers will know it is a Mallard duck.