[Tweeters] Frisky Mallard Behavior: WHY???

[Marc Hoffman]

Sunday Tina Blade and I visited Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge 
for several hours in the afternoon. We watched some very frisky 
Mallards splashing around the main pond and wondered what the story 
was: is this courtship, grooming, just plain fun, or what?

Here's a link to a short video of the behavior:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSIrN7SzScI&hd=1

You can hear hunters shooting in the background, but really I could 
find no reason to suspect the birds were being startled.

Marc Hoffman
Kirkland, WA
http://www.dartfrogmedia.com/photography
mailto: tweeters at dartfrogmedia dot com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20111017/686c8441/attachment.htm