Blogs by Shirley Ann Parker
Mallards at a business park?
4/30/2006 8:24:09 PM
More stunning to learn was that the bachelor mallards attack the young of females who have made them angry by rejecting their advances.
I'm posting this here also, because Shirley's Corner Desk at my website has major problems again, apparently due to the conflict between the host's software and Windows XP/IE. After working for a month, it is now "freaking out" yet again. Not exactly my idea of a professional image for my technical writing clients.
But outside of that irritation, I thought my other readers would enjoy a few comments from my "work environment." So, here we go:
I don’t know all the facts about the wildlife visiting our large business park, but we’re surrounded by housing developments on three sides and an “unused” reservoir not too far from us on the other. Besides the small critturs that I’ve mentioned before, mallards come and go, with a little help from animal control now and then. (It may even be Fish & Game employees who come in, but from a distance, I’ve seen them with large nets attached to poles.) In addition to eight unattached male mallards, we’ve had two pairs of mallards this year. Each had as many as a dozen ducklings hatch this season. The fluffy young ones are a delight to watch, paddling furiously around the ornamental pond in the center green area of the complex. The pond is well supplied with plants, mosquito fish, and other inhabitants, and has a pretty strong current in places.
A security officer commented to me one lunch hour that the young ones don’t last long. We know there are predators at night, including coyotes, and probably feral cats. Animal control comes in, as needed, to move the survivors and the parents out to safer habitats. More stunning to learn was that the bachelor mallards attack the young of females who have made them angry by rejecting their advances. (Sounds a lot like the behavior of egotistical human males to me.) The mate will drive off any male that bothers his little family, as well as two-legged observors who get too close for comfort. One group of employees sitting at a nearby table was open-mouthed, when a rejected suitor paddled back, grabbed a duckling by the neck and held it under water, trying to drown it. The father of the duckling reacted furiously and drove the murderous-intent intruder away. Next day, some slightly older ducklings were present, three whose downy feathers had dropped out, allowing adult plumage to show. It looked as though the first mated pair had been moved back with their surviving youngsters, or had found their own way back!
Life’s dramas go on all around us, and we’re usually totally unaware of them. It’s such a privilege to be an observor.
Post a Comment new!
More Blogs by Shirley Ann Parker
• Welcoming 2012 - Tuesday, January 03, 2012
• One down and two to go - Thursday, November 24, 2011
• Cannot believe the holidays are upon us - Friday, November 11, 2011
• Plumbing Nightmares - Monday, September 26, 2011
• This month it's been marketing - Saturday, August 13, 2011
• Venturing further into e-books - Sunday, July 24, 2011
• And the foreclosures continue - Saturday, July 02, 2011
• A Satisfying Genealogy Conference - Tuesday, June 21, 2011
• Between the Spaces of A Writer's Life - Saturday, June 04, 2011
• Time to Move Forward - Friday, December 10, 2010
• I have lost an entire year but... - Friday, December 10, 2010
• Now here's a situation for you! - Tuesday, April 14, 2009
• Patricia Highsmith Understood - Saturday, July 05, 2008
• This isn't the life I ordered - Sunday, March 02, 2008
• California Wildfires - Saturday, November 10, 2007
• Life as it is lived - Friday, October 05, 2007
• Are you a Notary Public? - Monday, June 04, 2007
• Time is flying by...much too fast! - Sunday, May 20, 2007
• Reminder! The Ballad of Billy Lee - Saturday, December 02, 2006
• To My Reviewers - Friday, November 24, 2006
• The Ballad of Billy Lee - save the date! - Monday, October 09, 2006
• Being lethargic or daydreaming? - Sunday, September 03, 2006
• A Lone Voice Can Make a Difference - Monday, August 14, 2006
• To report or to comment - Thursday, May 25, 2006
• Mallards at a business park? - Sunday, April 30, 2006
• Mobile Home Alert! - Tuesday, April 11, 2006
• Heard about Book Millionaire? - Thursday, April 06, 2006
• Well, the results are in.... - Monday, March 13, 2006
• Pins and Needles Time - Monday, February 20, 2006
• A Little Disappointed with the Writers' Conference - Tuesday, February 07, 2006
• A Dream Scrambling to Survive - Sunday, January 15, 2006
• An After-Christmas Sale - Sunday, January 08, 2006
• Happy New Year! - Saturday, December 31, 2005
• It's Over for Another Year - Monday, December 26, 2005
• What Do We Write in December? - Sunday, December 18, 2005
|
