Black Mountain

The greening of the mountains from Tanbark Ridge overlook, elevation 3175 feet, Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina. The road seen in upper left is the parkway as it continues northeast. Can you see the little houses, including my favorite, the red roofed one?

Friday, April 4, 2014

A ducky commotion


 Mallard males have been run off by the white duck...
 A woman who was closer to the scene told me that the white duck was mating with one of the grey ducks... and how long did I think they could hold their breath under water?
 He would use his bill to grab her neck every once in a while and pull her nostrils out of the water for a second.
 This went on for several minutes.  And I just took a few pictures, and stared dumbfounded. 
Then finally she was up and able to swim away...toward the Mallards.  But she wasn't exactly of that species either.

And the next day as I walked by, there's that little dark female next to her mate.  They should have some interesting looking ducklings, if he lets her raise them at all.  He seemed a bit aggressive.

4 comments:

  1. "Living in Black Mountain, NC" has been included in Friday's Sites To See for this week. Be assured that I hope this helps to point many new visitors in you direction.

    http://asthecrackerheadcrumbles.blogspot.com/2014/04/fridays-sites-to-see.html

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Jerry...and I'll come see your site too!

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  2. This is very interesting. That's pretty unusual to have cross-species mating I would think. You have caught a great sequence of photos.

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