Love is in the air
February 23rd, 2010
Chickadees are singing. House Finches are singing. Pigeons are locking bills on my front balcony.
And out on the rivers, mallards are courting like crazy.
It was an overcast morning on the Ottawa River when I found upward of twenty male mallards milling excitedly about a lone female--presumably an as-yet-unattached female--whistling and displaying. The activity seemed to happen in bursts. All would be quiet for ten seconds or so, then a sudden spate of whistling, frenzied swimming and neck-arching. I managed to capture one of the bursts in the picture above, where four of them were sounding off at once. The rather unimpressed-looking female is on the right.
I've watched mallards mate a number of times, and each time, it's the same ritual. First the pair swim alongside each other, heads bobbing up and down. Then he mounts, taking her by the nape. After it's over and the female is shaking herself out, the male lowers his head to the water and swims around her in circles, as if saying "wheeeee I did it I did it I did it!" It's so sweet.
I took these on the Rideau. They came out very dark (backlit), but then again, that seems appropriate somehow!
February 23rd, 2010
Chickadees are singing. House Finches are singing. Pigeons are locking bills on my front balcony.
And out on the rivers, mallards are courting like crazy.
It was an overcast morning on the Ottawa River when I found upward of twenty male mallards milling excitedly about a lone female--presumably an as-yet-unattached female--whistling and displaying. The activity seemed to happen in bursts. All would be quiet for ten seconds or so, then a sudden spate of whistling, frenzied swimming and neck-arching. I managed to capture one of the bursts in the picture above, where four of them were sounding off at once. The rather unimpressed-looking female is on the right.
I've watched mallards mate a number of times, and each time, it's the same ritual. First the pair swim alongside each other, heads bobbing up and down. Then he mounts, taking her by the nape. After it's over and the female is shaking herself out, the male lowers his head to the water and swims around her in circles, as if saying "wheeeee I did it I did it I did it!" It's so sweet.
I took these on the Rideau. They came out very dark (backlit), but then again, that seems appropriate somehow!
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