Mason Lake (May 12)
Date and Time: May 12, 1:00pm
Location: Mason Lake, Belfair, WA
Weather: Mostly sunny about 75 degrees
Water temperature: about 40 degrees
Soil conditions: slightly dry
Mason Lake is about a few hours away in Belfair, Washington, in Mason County. the lake is located on the isthmus of the Kitsap Peninsula between the Hood Canal and Pickering Passage of the Case Inlet. Mason Lake is the second largest freshwater lake in Mason County. Mason Lake is a very beautiful place on the way you can see the vegetation change from lands where trees are being restored where they were once logged to rich forest lands with ferns and red cedar trees to shore plants and green algae.
Today, is a very nice day here in Belfair, the songbirds are chirping loudly and the water is peacefully flowing. While sitting on the dock on the lake, a family of Mallard ducks swam by, the mother, about 7 ducklings, and the father Mallard. They were just foraging around the shallow waters for seeds and aquatic foods. One thing I noticed was that the male Mallard duck was keeping his distance from the mother duck and her ducklings. He was never really close to them. Shortly after they swam by another mother duck and her five ducklings swam by, but there was no father Mallard duck with this family. but what really interested me was that the father Mallard Duck of the first family would swim of and try to peck on the mother duck of the second family. I was really confused, why is the father duck leaving his family and messing with the mother of the second family? After observing their behavior for a few hours i had remembered that Mallard duck pairs are generally monogamous however, paired males at times pursue females other than their mates called extra-pair copulations. And male Mallards usually force these copulations. It was clear the male Mallard wanted to mate with the other female Mallard and the male was especially consistent because well, there wasn't another male Mallard to compete with.
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