Mal Takes a Fishing Trip

Male Mallard Fishing

Mallory Mallard is such a handsome duck, it’s hard to ignore him, even though he’s not exactly exotic.

Here he is all by himself, a rare occurrence in breeding season, although Mallard drakes don’t hang around to care for ducklings. Mal, however, seems very devoted to Maura, his mate.

He’s looking quite serious, because finding food is indeed important business. And the water, gathered in drops on his oily head and streaming from his bill, makes his beautiful colors gleam.

You might expect Mal to dive underwater like a loon, but no! He dabbles and dips in the daintiest manner. You still see his his full body, and sometimes even his eyes. See below for a photograph of Mal and Maura dabbling for food. I have no idea how they catch anything this way, but here they are, far from starving.

Nice to see you again Mal. Till next time…

Mal Takes a Fishing Trip, #2 of 2 Photographs
Second in a collection of two photographs. Here are Mal and his Duck, Maura, dabbling for dinner. Note how their eyes are above water. At times they will dip, completely submerging their heads, but not turning their tails up, as other, deeper fishing ducks do. Beats me how they catch anything with this technique, but Mallards pretty much outnumber other ducks, so the species isn’t starving. Of course, they also eat grass, grain, worms, bugs and other knicknacks, true omnivores. In any case, yes, dabbling looks a bit dainty but it works.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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