Month: November 2021

Homher the iDuck reappears!

After disappearing for the summer, the most interesting duck in Thomson Marsh over the past year and a half (since March 2020) has suddenly reappeared along with some of the ‘winter mallards’ that make Teal Pond and its vicinity their home from November through April. Please give the images time to load!

Homher the Intersex Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), discovered in the area in the spring of 2020, comes and goes with the seasons. We’re very happy to have her back again in Thomson Marsh, near Teal Pond.

For those who don’t know, an intersex mallard is a female that, over many years, has taken on many characteristics of drake Mallards from some green in the head to dark breast plumage and the curly black over white tail feathers. For the story of how I came to realize that Homher is an iDuck and not a hybrid or an eclipse drake, please check out my very lengthy account here: https://birdsandmusings.wordpress.com/2021/02/05/its-not-a-hybrid-after-all/

I last saw her nibs in June 2021. I had my doubts (as I had several times throughout the previous year) that I would ever see her again. But here it is, November 2021 and she’s back, the picture of good health — no sign of the limp that bothered here last winter.

Hope you enjoy these photos from October 27. I saw here again on Nov. 4, but as it was nearly dark, I have photo to prove it….

Not a great photo, but it illustrates how Homher differs from both drakes and hens in the ‘normal’ Mallard range. While the other ducks tolerate her, there’s no close connection. She wanders around with them and goes back and forth between Teal Pond and this grass area near Kelowna Rec Field, Kelowna, BC.

“So why is she called Homher,” you ask. Well, when I first saw her in Belmont Pond, about a km west of where she resides now, one of the first things I noticed about her, besides her obviously female bill, was her white eyelid. For some unexplainable reason, I thought of Homer the blind poet. And, as I thought she was a male, most likely a hybrid of some kind, I named it for the great Greek storyteller. Eventually (see the link above), I learned that our odd duck was a female, and had to adjust the spelling from Homer to Homher. These photos illustrate how her eye is an important part of her ‘iDuckness’….

Homher with her eyes open.
Homher with her eye closed.
Homher squinting….

And finally, Homer in her higher def portrait for this day. Expect updates as the winter moves in….
She’s in our thoughts daily!

Homher — official portrait!

For my report on the other iDucks that have also come back for the winter, click here:
https://birdsandmusings.wordpress.com/2021/12/27/theyre-all-back-the-iducks-that-is/