Mallard

Description:

This picture shows a bunch of sleeping ducks just taking a siesta on the boat launch at my local lake. The colorful ones are the males and the browner duller colored ones are females. In the mix are a few ringed billed gulls which are named after the black band that wraps around the bill.

Habitat:

Lakes and other reservoirs

Notes:

I often go to the lake and take walks around the area watching the waves, watching the people jog, and the children play. The main reason I go is to feed our local Mallards and Coots. They are most common at are lake mixed in with domestic geese, domestic ducks, and other types of stray wild ducks. These ducks are often seen with the coot. The coot is an interesting bird totally black with a white beak, red eyes, and greenish-yellow feet with blue lines like they are wearing pair of crazy socks. They are plump, chubby little creatures that are a professional at a feeding technique called diving. This technique is shared with ducks and by coots and other waterfowl. it is a fun thing to watch these things and they disappear underwater and popping back up to the surface. they are like a kids bath toy. The duck also shares the bath toy description. In all my experiences at the lake I have seen several aggressive Mallard fights by far the Mallard to me is one of the more hostile of all duck species. their was one time where one male got into a squabble with another male and the first one grabbed on to his wind and the second one was struggling to get away but the first mallard was too strong and a violent struggle to escape started. The Second one slapped the water and what worried me was the bunch of visible sharp rocks underneath where the two were fighting I was afraid number two was going to break his wing or something. It was a tussle that lasted for about almost a minute until number one got fed up and left him alone but not after running him down as fast as he could for good measure. He was telling number two to get out of town buddy. Mallard fights are often common especially when humans feed them. They are highly opportunistic when it comes to first come first served feeding. Ducks will often steal others food. Like say you have your eye one and you throw it a piece of cracker or bread then another snatches it. when I was younger this behavior drove me mad then I started to understand why the others did that. It is pretty full of duck if you pick a good day to go our mostly in the winter they stay in the boat launch area as you see above. They stay as close as they can with one another. They are sociable and get along with birds not of their species. They are like the Dutch rabbit of the Duck world it looks like someone took one and made several copies or clones. it is hard to tell them apart in some cases.