Hello Marc,


It is possible that this is another bathing behavior. I have seen other Mallards do this, even when they are alone. It appears that each species has stereotypical bathing behaviors- even though there may be much "overlap". On the same note, in September, I was capturing video of a Solitary Sandpiper at close range. It was bathing away and suddenly did a head fist standing dive and landed in a mirror image position and kept on bathing- apparently this is a behavior not uncommon with that species.


Dan Reiff

----- Original Message -----
From: "Marc Hoffman" <tweeters at dartfrogmedia .com>
To: tweeters at u. washington . edu
Sent: Monday, October 17, 2011 6:24:03 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Frisky Mallard Behavior: WHY???

Sunday Tina Blade and I visited Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge for several hours in the afternoon. We watched some very frisky Mallards splashing around the main pond and wondered what the story was: is this courtship, grooming, just plain fun, or what?

Here's a link to a short video of the behavior:
http :// www . youtube .com/watch?v=KSIrN7SzScI& hd =1

You can hear hunters shooting in the background, but really I could find no reason to suspect the birds were being startled.

Marc Hoffman
Kirkland, WA
http :// www . dartfrogmedia .com/photography
mailto : tweeters at dartfrogmedia dot com

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