Tweeters,



All ducks, including the so-called "dabbling" species, are quite capable of
diving. In the case of Mallards, it is not unusual for young birds to
occasionally make shallow dives, although adults rarely do so.



The physiology of diving in ducks has been studied in detail by scientists.
Interestingly, most of this research has been done with captive Mallards--
a species that normally does not dive. However, when they do dive (or are
forced to under experimental conditions), their physiology is almost
identical to that of diving ducks.



Wayne C. Weber

Delta, BC

contopus at telus.net







From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of
squeakyfiddle at aol.com
Sent: September-22-11 8:28 PM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] Diving Mallards at Seward Park



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