During "Salmon Days" at Issaquah WA a few years ago, we watched some
mallards working Issaquah Creek. They were eating freshly spawned
salmon eggs at an incredible rate. They didn't seem to miss any on the
section of stream I was watching.

Eating a live fish is certainly something a Mallard is not specialized
for (i.e. they don't have a Merganser beak), but it is not outside of
their digestive capabilities.


== Michael Hobbs
== Redmond WA
== mikeho at microsoft.com


>----------
>From: BirdAHikes at aol.com[SMTP:BirdAHikes at aol.com]
>Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 1996 5:36 AM
>To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
>Subject: Re: Mallard eating FISH
>
>In a message dated 96-08-13 20:16:22 EDT, you write:
>
><< Has anyone else ever witnessed anything like this? Is it a normal
>occurrance
> that I've just never seen before? >>
>
>Ingrid,
>
>I didn't know specifically about fish but before we had a frog pond, a pair
>of Mallards landed in our swimming pool winter cover and ate about 1,000
>Pacific Chorus frog tadpoles! Their crops were so full we weren't sure they
>would be able to fly away.
>
>Maia Kelly
>Selah, WA
>