Tuesday 2 January 2018

Manky Mallards

Had a family day out to Green Dragon Eco-farm near Bicester today GREEN DRAGON ECO FARM WEBSITE. Quite an interesting place, a converted old farm with some resourceful re-imaginations of old farm buildings and spaces, a collection of rare farm animal breeds, a mini-menagerie, an eco-garden, children play areas and some natural habitats (be nice to see even more natural habitats) At some point in the future there are plans to develop visitor facilities for Beddington Farmlands so I always treat these days out as research opportunities. The range of visitor facility options is extremely large from state of the art designer architecture options like Rainham and the London Wetland Centre to wooden shacks like the visitor facilities at Pagham Harbour. I'd imagine considering the resources available for Beddington Farmlands it will be something in between the extremes. 

 The crest of these ducks is caused by a mutation where fatty tissue has seeped through a gap in the deformed skull. Not sure on the breed of this duck. Maybe a Saxony Mallard? Amazing to think about the plasticity of the Mallard genome. Some main breeds include Abacot Rangers, Anconas, Aylesburys, Buff Orpingtons, Cayugas, Duclairs, Indian Runners, Khaki Campbells, Magpies, Pekins, Rouens, Saxonys and Swedish.  More on this here: Manky Mallards 10,000 birds
A Crested Pekin ?  The plasticity of a bird genome is something that is constrained in the natural environment as selection pressures channel the potential for variation. However that plasticity expresses itself to a degree and always worth considering as a fundamental factor in bird identification and the possibilities within intraspecies variation. Intraspecies variation is only one major consideration too along with hybridisation, aberrations and of course interspecies variation. Basically there are brave birders with short reputations and cautious birders with long reputations but as my former gull mentor Mushaq Ahmed always said 'Reputation in bird identification is nothing more than a Time Bomb'. 

 The most industrial like Walled Garden I've ever common across. 
 Was resourcefully impressive inside. 
Solar powered irrigation system. An interesting idea. One for the Beddington Farmlands pin board. 

So far at Beddington Farmlands we've got as far as a Pre-feasibility study and also a Solar Farm Feasibility study. We applied to the Viridor Community fund for a contribution towards the Feasibiity Study and Detailed Planning but they rejected the application as part of their agenda to crush local community aspirations. Here's the group's website HACKBRIDGE ECOLOGY PARK GROUP

No comments: