Today....I heard a beautiful and faintly familiar bird sound. Then I remembered what it was....the sound of long tail duck. I hurried down to where I could see better by the water. There were 4 long tail ducks all making calls and they kept lunging toward one another over an over again. The chase is quick and momentary and even seemed to take place under water at times.. This seemingly agitated behavior including some wing flapping occured for awhile.
I saw that also with Bufflehead ducks one day a coupla weeks ago. They kept lunging toward one another, flapping wings....constant energetic behavior though I dont' remember them calling out at all. The males lunged at the males and also a couple of females.
Is this a breeding thingy? I have only seen it with these long tail and bufflehead ducks. All of the other many ducks are not doing it, at least not when I happen to be there around.
Oh and another thing I noticed with Mallard Ducks. A couple of times I have seen females "go to town" picking things out of the ground and visitng puddles for a long time and having a drink I assume. Male mallard follows her every move and he is not behaving the same way....just looks like he is "mother hen" to his partner. Is she pregnant and ready to lay eggs I wonder.
* laughs like crow, soars like eagle with vision of hawk, haunts like loon & lulls like nuthatch ....tickle tickle, feather has most powerful medicine of all...makes you laugh *
