Diving and Dabbling Waterfowl


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	Diving and Dabbling Waterfowl Water is a magnet for animal life, and the Oxbow Lake is no exception. I often see swallows swooping down to pick off airborne insects above the lake and deer slipping through the trees for a drink at the water's edge. But the lake's real characters are Mallards and Pied-billed Grebes. Ever since I read The Wind in the Willows, I have had a soft spot in my heart for dabbling ducks like Mallards. Kenneth Grahame describes their behavior best in his “Duck's Ditty”: All along the backwater, Through the rushes tall, Ducks are a-dabbling, Up tails all! Mallards look like they are having so much fun as they duck their heads down in search of underwater bugs and plants, leaving their tails bobbing above them. And then I met the Pied-billed Grebe, which quickly became my favorite type of waterfowl. I rounded a bend in the trail and saw a small, duck-like bird, dark against the reflective water. Then --- pop --- the bird was gone! Pied-billed Grebes are much shier than Mallards and are prone to dive down completely underwater if disturbed. The grebe's diving habit is not just a way of escaping predators, though. Pied-billed Grebes regularly dive deep beneath the lake's surface in search of food which is beyond the reach of dabbling ducks. The dining habits of Mallards and grebes are more than just a curiosity. For the birds themselves, dabbling and diving are methods of living in the same lake without fighting over dinner. Just like the plants along the Cliff Trail which are able to coexist by living in slightly different niches, Mallards and Pied-billed Grebes coexist by feeding on different foods. <--Back to History of Oxbow Lake's Construction On to Blanketed With Fog--> Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed. Add a comment