That Time of Year

The mallard, or sometimes known as a “wild duck”, lives in wetlands, chowing down on water plants, and is gregarious, meaning it lives in flocks. You can always tell the male because of the bright green or blue head, while the female is a light brown. They form pairs in the fall but once eggs are in the nest the male will join up with the guys until molting season at which time his imperious urge rises for other females, even other species. Mallards are one of the few waterfowl who have adjusted to intrusion of mans elimination of their original habitat. Which means it will still be around long after man has disappeared. 🙂

As an interesting fact, the Peabody Hotel in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee has maintained a long tradition of keeping one Mallard drake and four Mallard hens, called The Peabody Ducks, as a popular hotel attraction and as guests of honor. The Mallards are provided by a local farmer and friend of the Peabody Hotel and are rotated out and returned to the farm for a new team of Mallards every three months. This tradition has also been maintained and observed at the other Peabody Hotels in Little Rock, Arkansas and Orlando, Florida. These are not the Peabody Ducks but a pair hanging around my lake.