common_nature | A wander in a big ol' park

I was going to go down to the Rhode Island shore yesterday, but I got off a little late, so I changed plans mid-stream and stopped at Roger Williams Park instead, which in in the middle of Providence and has a zoo in it, but also has this wonderful series of lakes and ponds that I hung around, instead.

I met this guy hanging out with some other mallards. There's always the possibility, given his proximity to the zoo, that he's an escaped something-else, but I'm pretty sure he's just an abnormally colored mallard.

At one point, some mallards had a turf fight.

One mallard retreats, post haste.

The other mallard huffily (or triumphantly) settles his feathers.

Chickadee in flight.

I'm pretty sure this guy's a sparrow of some kind. Maybe a warbler, but I doubt it. Anyway: Seed.

And now, In Search Of More Seed.

This here's a Campbell Duck, probably. (I always thought they were just Puddle Ducks, but apparently not.) They're not native to the area (they're a UK variant), but then again, they're pretty common, and there's a bunch of them that live in Boston. But she too may be a zoo inhabitant gone rogue. (ETA: Or, more likely, a Pekin Duck.)