January 04 – My Nature Journal

Mallards

Today was a very exciting day out in nature, as I witnessed animal behavior I’d never observed before. And the fact that the behavior was performed by one of the most common–and thus often overlooked–wild animals in my area made the experience especially exciting.

So what was this surprising animal behavior? Mallard ducks fishing!

Now, some nature journalers may yawn or roll their eyes at my excitement. After all, biologists, hunters, and nature enthusiasts have long known that Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) occasionally hunt fish. Even I knew about this habit intellectually.

But I’d never seen them actually do it with my own eyes.

Not once, in decades of wandering through nature and watching wild animals live their lives, have I ever seen Mallards do anything other than dabble for aquatic vegetation and invertebrates.

But several other things surprised me about today’s experience.

First, the location. The fishing Mallards were about a hundred yards up a stream that feeds into the large lake. While I’ve often seen Mallards at the mouth of this stream, today, they had paddled farther upstream than usual.

Second, the stream itself. While there were some deep pools near where the Mallards fished, the water in which they spent the most time—and caught the most fish—was quite shallow. Several times, a Mallard stood up in the middle of the stream and some traveled across the water using a combination of paddling and waddling.

Third, the size of the fish the Mallards caught. I often see remarkably large schools of fish in the deep pools of this stream but the individual fish are usually very small dace or minnows. The fish targeted by the Mallards today were quite large compared to the fish.

I couldn’t see the fish very well but I think they might have been Gizzard Shad (Dorosoma cepedianum), a common resident of lakes, rivers, and streams throughout the region, and an important food fish for predators.

The Mallards’ fishing technique was very dynamic. A duck would tip underwater and come up with a struggling fish trapped in its bill. The Mallard would stun the fish by thrashing it around, then dip it back into the water. Each duck repeated this sequence for several minutes before finally swallowing the fish in one big gulp.

The Mallards’ fishing technique varied by sex, at least while I was watching.

The female Mallards stayed out in the middle of the stream and thrashed their fish around in the air. In contrast, the male Mallards brought their fish to the stream bank and beat the fish against the hard mud.

Several ducks appeared to prefer thievery over fishing for themselves. I watched several birds do nothing but wait calmly near where their fellow Mallards were fishing. Once a duck popped up with a fish in its beak, the thief Mallards would paddle in at speed to harass the successful hunter into dropping its prey.

Attempts to steal fish seemed to vary depending on the sex of the fisher and the sex of the thief. Male Mallards tried to steal fish from both other male Mallards and females. But the females never tried to steal fish from males while I watching.

All in all, I watched these Mallards fish for about forty-five minutes and they put on quite a show the entire time. I really enjoyed seeing a wilder side of these common birds. Usually, Mallards act calm, placidly floating on the surface or dabbling tail feathers up and bright orange legs waving around.

But today, they proved themselves to be extremely successful predators.