The Chase

Gallery: AvianPosted March 30, 201082 views7 comments

I laughed when I saw this image on my computer. At first I thought this was a female chasing away a male until I got to my books. Are these two female? Are they Mottled Ducks or Mallard? The front duck does have a blue patch on the wing. They were hanging out with blue winged teals. I thought the bahavior was fun as the one chased the other for a good hour till it flew off.
Canon 7D 300 mm 2.8 lens w 1.4 X
ISO 250 1/1000 @f6.3

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on March 30, 2010 at 12:50 PM

Cheryl, these are two males. The bird on the right on the water is a male mottled duck from what I can tell. The bird taking off is either a mottled duck x mallard hybrid, or a mallard. I am leaning toward a hybrid. Hybrids are a real problem and a lot of work is going into dealing with the problem of feral mallards in FL. They have the potential to hybridize our mottled ducks out of existance. Nice action shot by the way. Maybe a bit dark.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 360 Posts, 7132 Comments

Comment posted by Joe Paratore on March 30, 2010 at 1:53 PM

Great action shot .....Cheryl You caught the moment perfectly

Registered on January 31, 2007, 40 Posts, 160 Comments

Comment posted by Mia McPherson on March 30, 2010 at 5:00 PM

Cheryl,

I agree with Ron B. on the ID of the bird on the right and his suspicions about the bird taking off being a hybrid.

Great action, love the splashing water and opened billed, aggressive posture of the duck on the right. Nice sharpness & details. Does appear a little dark on my screen.

This is a fun shot, thanks for sharing it.

Registered on June 25, 2007, 491 Posts, 12566 Comments

Comment posted by Dan Moore on March 30, 2010 at 7:53 PM

Very nice capture Cheryl.Lots of action. I like them on the dark side if that is the way it was.

Dan

Registered on February 11, 2010, 143 Posts, 1248 Comments

Comment posted by Cheryl Molennor on March 30, 2010 at 8:17 PM

Thanks for the comments, ID info and suggestion on the light. I agree after mentioned.

Registered on June 30, 2009, 300 Posts, 5051 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on March 31, 2010 at 2:15 AM

Good capture Cheryl, and nice action. I lean to a hybrid also. Perhaps a bit of brightening, as the others have suggested?

Registered on August 28, 2006, 1240 Posts, 8506 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Dudley on April 1, 2010 at 10:23 AM

Interesting behavior Cheryl. I like the big splash and the aggressive pose of the duck on the right.

Registered on March 30, 2007, 437 Posts, 10915 Comments