[mou] Black Dog Odd Duck

[Roberta.Gitchel@co.hennepin.mn.us]

Black Dog Road, Dakota Co., 1/1/2004 --

Well, O.K., a MALLARD is hardly an "odd duck."  However I think I saw a
mallard hen engaging in rather odd behavior.  Sighted a mallard pair
swimming in the open water below the dam on the east end of Black Dog Road
near Hwy 77.  Noted the hen paddled quickly to shore, hauled herself up on
the bank, and immediately and most ferociously began chewing on the carcass
of what appeared to be a freshly killed drake mallard.  This hen was most
aggressive in her feasting, shaking the carcass this way and that to rip
off shreds of still-bloody meat.  Her mate would have none of it....the
drake (the live one, that is) paddled off-shore at a discreet distance and
showed no inclination whatsoever to participate in the cannibalistic New
Year feast.  I had assumed mallards are strictly vegetarian.  I guess not.

Mallard was likely laid low by hungry EAGLES, a pair of which were fishing
the upstream side of the dam.   Also paddling about on the upstream side of
the dam were 10 - 12 HOODED MERGANSERS.

Large group of COMMON MERGANSERS noted swimming near the far south shore of
the east end of Black Dog Lake.  A small number of CANADIAN GEESE also in
the same vicinity.

The west end of Black Dog Road, near Hwy 35W, offered a flock of about 30
PURPLE FINCHES gleaning seeds in the trees adjacent to the river path.
EAGLES -- juvenile and adult -- noted on the west end of Black Dog as well
as the east.