Subject: Great morning at Narbeck Wetlands
Date: May 23 10:38:13 2002
From: Joaw9 at aol.com - Joaw9 at aol.com


Greets Tweets --
I had a good one today. What made it special was seeing green herons
(2), a Virginia rail, and a sora all in the same area (okay, the green herons
were fly bys BUT one of them flew right over my head). There were numerous
(between 8 and 15) western tanagers, Bullock's orioles, Vaux swifts (3),
northern rough-winged swallows (also violet-green and barn), Hutton's vireo,
warbling vireo, Swainson's thrush, belted kingfisher, western wood peewee,
lots of Wilson's warblers, as well as yellow warblers, and orange-crowned. I
had a total of 33 species but most of them were same old, same old.
Do mallards rape? I am not trying to sound anthropomorphic but I
watched the (seeming) rape of a female mallard that had a troop of young
ducklings feeding nearby. I was standing directly over them (they were
struggling in the wetland/marsh pond while I watched on the footbridge
above). During the course of trying to mount the female, the male bit her
neck and head many times. When he was mounting (mounted) he grabbed her by
the neck and forced her face under water, holding it there. All the time the
female was fighting back, trying to buck the male off and biting his neck and
breast. They struggled this way for about 10 minutes. The female finally
got the male a good solid bite on the neck and he scurried away, scattering
the nearby ducklings in the wake of his departure. The female returned to
her younglings. It did not appear that the male was successful in depositing
his essence into the female (but who knows).

Jo Waldron
Everett, WA
joaw9 at aol.com