American Black Duck

Yesterday after I dropped my grandson off at work , I Traveled down to Plymouth to Jenney Pond because there was a pair of common mergansers reported at that location. Since the weather has been below freezing most of the pond was frozen over which concentrates the waterfall into a smaller area. Because usually they are swimming along the father shore I utilized the to ask convertor on my 500 mm lens so I could get larger images into my pictures. However, at times I had too much lens because some of the action was taken place close to me and so I had to move backwards to try to get the entire duck in the picture.

There was a lot of mating action going on with the mallards. The Drake Mallard would climb on the back of the Hen Mallard, grab her head with his bill and complete the copulation. Afterwards the Drake would swim around with its head extended at the water line. Both of them would then preen and then flap their wings.