Feisty Birds

Saturday was a beautiful day with clear blue skies and despite the temperatures being in the high teens to the low 20s.  There was no wind, and it was comfortable out.  I arrived at Jenney Pond in Plymouth and because of all the people that had trampled down the snow, it was easy to walk to the bridge.  I met a friend of mine who was photographing the mallards and we started talking.  She hadn't seen the wood duck at all and what she really was looking for was hopefully the red tailed Hawks that have been cruising the area.  She pointed out to me that further up in the pond where the water was flowing was a set of common mergansers.  I knew I had it get some photographs of the common merganser since the ones I had previously taken were from Churchill, Manitoba, where they breed.

As I have previously said, always be prepared because you never know when something will occur.  Suddenly in front of us a Hen Mallard started attacking a Drake Mallard.  Normally this occurrence is the opposite way.  But the hen really was beating up on the drake until he finally moved away.

Mallards Fighting

Mallards Fighting

Mallards Fighting

Mallards Fighting

Mallards Fighting

Mallards Fighting

Mallards Fighting

At another location, maybe it's because it was a beautiful day, a first winter ring-billed gull was very feisty and attacking another ring-billed gull.  Normally when you see a gull attacking another gull.  It is because the second gull has food and the first gull wants the food.  Today, no food, was involved, the first gull was just feisty.

Feisty First Winter Ring-billed Gull

Feisty First Winter Ring-billed Gull

This made for some interesting pictures.