Remember the unidentifiable ducks from last December?  They are not alone in perplexing my growing skills in identifying nature’s many faces.

Just ten days ago I faced another challenge in the waterfowl arena, and again it took the form of ducks.

Both are males, as you can see from the curled tail feathers.

Looking at these images, I remembered a walk in April that offered me another opportunity to see at least one of these faces.

In the early morning sunlight falling on grass wet with heavy dew, one of these strangers lay sleeping as I slipped past him doing my best to be both silent and invisible.  It worked to a degree, for he only awoke after my steps carried me well beyond him and further away from the lake.

Yet then and more recently, I’ve been left wondering what species—or what combination of species—they might be.  And I still don’t know.