I was out at Bob Heirman park early this morning and I risked walking out to
the river bar on the dike. The river is open for hunting adjacent to the
park and sometimes duck shot comes raining down into the park from the river
as boat hunters shoot at ducks. (This part of the river really should be
closed to hunting) Lots of swans in Shadow lake, flying off to the
cornfields to the east today. Today only a few boats went by. I was
surprised to find two mallards, a male and female near the end of the bar,
walking along side by side. They did not fly as I came into their view and
to my surprise instead they turned and headed away from the water and I
decided to follow at a discrete distance. The female stopped in roughly the
middle of the bar, in a place surrounded by cover and the male who had
continued walking, turned around and walked back. The male stood next to the
female and began nodding and softly quacking as if offering encouragement.
The female finally stood up and as she stood up, I noticed that her left
wing was injured. The male led the female up and over the top of the bar and
into the backwater there where they both swam side by side into the brushy
area and out of view. From what I read, ducks do not mate for life, but
clearly this seemed to be a dedicated partnership.



Rob Sandelin

Naturalist, Writer, Teacher

Snohomish County