As I was sitting in North Hide yesterday watching the garganeys I couldn't help but notice the behaviour of two mallards nearby. I thought I'd seen two males so what followed came as a surprise:
At this point I thought I must have been mistaken and that one of them was female.
The bird underneath could not have been very comfortable!
'Oy! Let me up!!'
'Try that again and I'll bite your bottom'
'Don't you go biting my bottom.....actually, I feel like another session!'
'I'm getting out of here!!'
It was only when I checked back through my photos of this episode that I knew I'd been right about the two males. One theory put to me was that when a male mallard really gets the urge he's liable to jump on any mallard, even a male! Whatever the reason, I'm glad I captured this!
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.
Lol Clare, blame all that excess of raging hormones/testosterone ! I remember hearing about this before HERE take a look at Aiki's reply.
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Regards, Hazel
It's not all that uncommon among the animal world. Even same gender long term pairings aren't unheard of.
Every day a little more irate about bird of prey persecution, and I have a cat - Got a problem with that?
I have a photo from my local canal of a male on a male on a female! And oddly this thread went into my junk folder and was behind one called Dating For Sex LOL