THIEVING DUCKS

     Gadwalls and American wigeons are kinds of dabbling ducks that use their shovel-like bills to scoop up aquatic vegetation from shallow water in ponds and lakes through winter.  Members of both kinds tip-up, with their tails pointing skyward, while reaching their long necks down in the water to dislodge and consume water plants.  Each duck does that repeatedly until full.

     Meanwhile, wintering American coots and diving ducks slip under water from the surface of deeper water to dredge up water vegetation and float to the surface with it, where they swallow it.  Again, those birds dive repeatedly until full.    

     After each dive, the coots and diving ducks must surface to gulp air and swallow the plants they emerged with.  And that's when those feathered divers are hijacked of the food they surfaced with.  Gadwalls and wigeons watch coots and diving ducks plunge into deeper water and watch for them to surface again.  

    Often the coots and diving ducks bring up more vegetation than they can ingest at once.  And as soon as they surface, alert gadwalls and wigeons quickly swim a short distance to the diving birds and quickly grab some of the water plants away from the rightful owners of that food.  

     The divers, gadwalls and wigeons all seize and gulp down the soft water plants as fast as they can to beat the competition for it.  But the coots and diving ducks don't seem to mind being hi-jacked.  They just keep diving for more plants until everyone is full and satisfied.  Luckily there is much underwater vegetation on the bottoms of ponds and lakes through winter.      

     Drake gadwalls and wigeons are pretty ducks in camouflaged ways.  Gadwall males are mostly gray, with browner heads and black rears.  Male American wigeons are cinnamon-brown with green heads and a white stripe on top of each head.  Females of both species are brown and dark-streaked, which camouflages them on their grassy nests and while they are raising ducklings.

     Interestingly, the adaptable wigeons join geese and mallard and pintail ducks on lawns and pastures, where they all graze on grass, and in harvested corn fields where they shovel up corn kernels.  All these handsome waterfowl species are a joy to watch feeding in human-made habitats.

     Gadwall and American wigeon ducks are intriguing to watch stealing food from coots and diving ducks on ponds and lakes through winter.  But, in the end, all those species seem to do well in spite of that theft on the water.              

          

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