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Post by whistlerwhittler on Jul 1, 2009 21:00:22 GMT -5
In the marsh at work we've had a family of mallards, a mother with 8 young. Today I was walking around the marsh and I heard the ducks making a ruckus. I walked over to see what was going on and I saw two or three of the ducks fighting on the water. I noticed that the one duck had it's head down and was flapping it's wings. After a while they settled down and started to swim away, the mother and 7 of the young. It looked like the duck that had received the beating was still there lying motionless. I walked over to see if I really saw what I thought I saw. Yep, the duck was lying there in the water head down. When I went to pick it up by the foot, I realized that it's bill was jammed solid into the firm bottom. I tugged it free and looked at the dead drakes bill, both the top and bottom bill were broken about 1" - 1-1/2" up from the tip. I never heard of mallards doing that to their siblings before. Has anyone else?
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Post by Zane on Jul 2, 2009 4:59:23 GMT -5
Are you sure a snapping turtle didn't attack the duck while it was tipped up feeding? Sounds like a turtle attack to me.....mom and the kids were probably excited not fighting.
Zane
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Post by Itrapny on Jul 2, 2009 5:18:35 GMT -5
Have never seen that before either, a snapping turtle attack could be a very logical idea though
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Derek
#2 Newhouse
Posts: 2,099
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Post by Derek on Jul 3, 2009 0:23:20 GMT -5
would a mink have attacked?
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Post by whistlerwhittler on Jul 3, 2009 12:45:12 GMT -5
We do occasionally see mink and snappers in the marsh. However, I wasn't too far away from the birds and it really appeared that they were fighting while the rest of the ducks just sat there. I know that birds can act very aggressively towards their own kind. Just never heard of it within a family of ducks. The ducklings are pretty big now, about 3/4 the size of the mother. In addition there weren't any cuts on the duck other than the bill being cracked. I assumed that was just from being shoved down into the bottom. I've seen drakes push a hen's head under while mating. Maybe this was another duck asserting some dominance?
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Post by pockets on Jul 4, 2009 21:27:49 GMT -5
Had Tame ducks growing up. Found several baby ducks half eaten and floating on the pond one year. A treble hook a hunk of ham and 20 pound test tied off to a whippy sapling and the next day one large snapping turtle. No more dead ducks.
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