Mallards in the Pool

Mallards in the Pool,
originally uploaded by Yolanda Huang.

7am in the morning, while in the midst of brushing my teeth, mom comes to my room excited to tell me that there are 2 beautiful ducks swimming in our pool. With the tooth brush still in my mouth, I rush outside with the camera to snap some shots.

Just by looking at the scene, you might think this to be such a romantic notion - male and female traveling hand in hand in a foreign land. However, after doing a little Wikipedia research, I find out "Mallards form pairs only until the female lays eggs, at which time she is left by the male." What a surprise right? It's a sad but typical phenomenon.

I guess this guy is not gay. According to Wikipedia, "Mallards also have rates of male-male sexual activity that are unusually high for birds. In some cases, as many as 19% of pairs in a Mallard population are male-male homosexual".