"Wooded Water"
21"H 18"W 13"D
Ed. size 25
4,200
At daybreak, a female mallard banks sharply, lowers her feet, tilts her body to brake and zeros in for splashdown in the flooded timber. There, she dabbles for food with a small flock in the shallows and loudly quacks her resentment at any intrusion. The female is the mouthy one; the male drake makes a soft, raspy sound and lets the hen do all the quacking.
Many mallards winter in the lower Mississippi valley and when spring arrives, they wing their way north to prairie potholes and small inland lakes to nest and breed. Typically, when they arrive the ground and ponds are still frozen and they feed on grain leftover in the fields until the thaw; often with Canada geese. The large duck is truly universal and can be found in all of the northern hemisphere as well as Africa, Asia, and Europe.
Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish
