Stopped by the south bay at Seward Park on Tuesday afternoon and found Mallards diving about 20' offshore. Their dives were real dives - they pushed themselves underwater and stayed there for between 2 and 5 seconds before coming up again. There's a link to a video at the end of this - towards the end you can see two of the Mallards swimming under the surface.

There were probably 50 Mallards present but only these few were diving. The others were doing their regular butts-up dabble thing.

I've done a quick internet search and diving mallards have been reported across the northern US in the recent past. I'm wondering if anyone else has seen this behavior around here? If so, could you let me know with as much detail as possible, either here or off-list? Other thoughts and notions are welcome. Note that this is a prime place for duck feeding, so I don't think that they are food stressed unless a diet of stale bread leaves them craving something, anything, else.

Video here:
http://youtu.be/n6i3AQkYoW8

Thanks,



Catherine Alexander
Lakewood Neighborhood
South Seattle