>Hellow tweets,
> As regards the eating habits of mallards, I was flabbergasted one
>spring at McClane Creek park in Olympia, WA to see an adult male mallard
>catch, macerate with its bill and then swallow a rough-skinned newt. The
>ID of the bird and the newt were never in question, as it happened ten
>feet away and took several minutes to accomplish. RS newts have an
>incredibly poisonous toxin in their skin; even a digested nibble would
>kill a lot of bigger animals. According to Bill Leonard, who was told
>this story, next day there was most certainly one dead duck ( though I
>never went back to check).

Jeff Skriletz of the WDFW just told me a story of receiving 3 dead juvenile
Pied-billed Grebes this week. They were given to his department to
necropsy, as they were suspected of being poisoned (heavy music in the
background). Indeed they were--each one had an adult rough-skinned newt in
its stomach! Of further interest, one was an albino--pure white. As if it
wasn't bad enough being conspicuous, it was also dumb. This is pure
natural selection.

I once watched a female Wood Duck for about 5 minutes, while it was trying
to swallow a good-sized bullfrog that looked much too large for its gape;
they typically eat seeds and insects. It still hadn't swallowed it when I
got bored and left, but at least it hadn't choked to death.

As I said, pure natural selection (equally on ducks, grebes, newts and
bullfrogs).

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 206-756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 206-756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416