The Mallard Duck Skull

This is the mallard duck skull that I found back on a walk here. When we found it it was still rotting away. Normally when we find bones all the flesh has already gone, but this one we put in some water and just left it there for about two weeks, then daddy sprayed it with the hose and then it was just the bone. Here's what it looked like when we found it:





Because we'd seen its body, we knew what type of bird it was. Ducks and geese have a flat beak that isn't sharp at the end. To make sure what it was, I measured the skull, and it was 110mm long. Then I looked at this website and it said it was a mallard. Because of the colour of the feathers, I knew it was a girl mallard.Here's more about mallards.

Here is the skull next to some other similar skulls that I have:



The top skull is from a mute swan, and I found it in the Secret Vault. It's the biggest type of bird skull like this with this type of beak, but even this one isn't fully grown. Adult ones are almost 1cm longer.

The middle skull is the mallard.

The bottom skull is a type of goose, I think a pink-footed goose (see why here). I found it in a broken shed near a loch where geese come over the winter. It was difficult to get because all the floorboards were broken so I had to step carefully to get it.

One of the first skulls I found was a mallard duck skull. I found the duck bones besides a lake in the Pheasant Woods which we now call Duck Skull Lake. Because it was easy to break, Daddy put it in a plastic case, which was sort of a good idea but now it is difficult to look at or measure, so I'm glad I've got another.

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