Mason Lake (May 12)

Date and Time: May 12, 4:00pm
Location: Mason Lake, Belfair, WA
Weather: Mostly sunny about 75 degrees
Water temperature: about 40 degrees
Soil conditions: slightly dry

A couple hours after observing the Mallard Ducks, I spot these two Canada Geese. I heard their call way in advance before I even saw them. Their distinctive 'honking' call makes the Canada Geese easy to determine. There was a male and female Canada Geese and I could tell this because female geese are smaller than male geese. But really sparked my interest about Canada Geese while observing them, was that they neared the Mallard Ducks and I was really interested about their behavior toward each other. As questions lingered in my head about what the Canada Geese were going to do to the Mallard duck and the little ducklings. It was very clear that the Canada Geese did not like the Mallard Ducks, the Canada Geese were pecking at the little ducklings and the female Mallard Duck was defending her young by flapping her wings and quacking at the geese while the male Mallard was just watching the whole thing. My guess was that it was because the Canada Geese were territorial however, the Mallards were there first! It was just really interesting that the male Mallard didn't do anything. Female Mallards are the ones that make a the quacking sounds and the male Mallards don't quack, they make a more quiet rasping sounding noise. This seems to be quite normal around this time of year because during the Spring, Canada Goose pairs break out from flocks and begin defending territories and this may be an area where the Geese feel it's their territory and the Mallards were trespassing. The size difference between the Mallards and the Canada Geese is a really big difference. Canada Geese weigh about 13 pounds for a male and 11 pounds for a female and Mallards weigh about 2.7 pounds for a male and 2.4 pounds for a female.

Posted on June 4, 2012 10:48 PM by ballev