This weekend I attended the BAWA lecture weekend in Perth, great job done by all! Congratulations.
On the Saturday afternoon, I was observing some musk ducks at Herdsman Lake and noticed some behaviour among the males which puzzled me.
One male was in the classic display position, tail erect, head back etc while another not far away was not. The non-displaying male slowly swam up to and around the displaying male, observing him with apparent great interest.
The displaying male made no aggressive moves, simply kept displaying and swimming back and forth and around the other.
This went on for about five minutes, with both males slowly swimming around each other, then the displaying male slowly stopped his display and put down his feathers.
The two males then swam away together, slowly, in roughly the same direction.
Undoubtedly both of these ducks were male, and there were no females in close proximity to the pair.
I’m told it’s a bit early for courtship yet so I’m wondering if this is some form of territorial marking – can anyone enlighten me?
Regards
Karen Hunt
Editor www.thebirdsnest.net.au
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