Seasonal stress?

Back in late October and November I made a few trips out to the bird sanctuary during which I noticed that the Canada geese as well as the coots were a little irritable with each other, frequently getting into squabbles for reasons that were not apparent to me. During a cold spell in late November I made another trip out there and this time it was the mallards’ turn to have a hair trigger. I don’t blame them really, with the exception of a few isolated areas where the birds kept the water agitated, everything was iced up and feeding in the water was impossible. Still, it was surprising to witness the determined attack on this poor mallard drake, a very one-sided assault that seemed to come out of the blue (at least I hadn’t seen what triggered it) with no attempt whatsoever on the part of the victim to fight back, and both of them scrambling to stay on their feet on the ice. It ended as quickly as it started when the attacker just turned away and slithered gingerly back to the watching group off mixed ducks.

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