Subject: Mallards Attack!
Date: Jan 6 08:41:40 2002
From: Rolan Nelson - rnbuffle at yahoo.com


Mary, I have seen this behavior with mallards more
than once, and usually at this time of year. I have
always been impressed that the defending male tends to
be so aggressive, not just driving off the offender,
but persuing him at some length.

Rolan Nelson, Burley rnbuffle at yahoo.com
--- MaryK <bassclef at seanet.com> wrote:
> Yesterday up at Green Lake I saw something in the
> duck world I'd never
> before witnessed. A pair of Mallards were cruising
> around the lake, behind
> the theater near the diving platform(s). Two drakes
> flew in and landed in
> the water near them. One of drakes apparently took
> a liking to Ms. Mallard
> and started towards her. This raised Mr. Mallard's
> ire. He immediately
> lunged towards the Interloper and attacked. At one
> point Mr. was atop the
> Interloper w/his bill around the Interloper's neck,
> and it appeared that he
> was trying to drown him--he kept trying to push the
> other's neck in the
> lake, and succeeded a few times. The Interloper
> escaped, only to fly off
> w/the Mr. in hot pursuit. The two swooped around
> the lake for a bit (in
> close formation, but I didn't see any air-to-air
> combat), then both landed
> but didn't continue their battle. Ms. then started
> quacking, and Mr. went
> over to join her. Soon thereafter the Interloper
> once again starting
> cruising towards Ms. M, but Mr. again attacked him,
> not quite so viciously
> this time, and the Interloper backed off quickly.
> I'm assuming this was
> defending-the-pair-bond behavior or something. Wow.
> I'd never seen a duck
> try to drown another before. Fascinating.
>
> Mary Klein
> Seattle WA
> BassClef at seanet.com
>


=====
Rolan Nelson
Burley, WA
rnbuffle at yahoo.com

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