A WHOLE LOT OF FLIRTING....

Around my place at the moment the flirting that is going on is reaching unprecedented levels! You see, here in Adelaide we have a range of ducks - native and exotic - and they are getting up to a lot of mischief; so much so that I heard on the radio a while back that all sorts of cross-breeding is happening that hasn't happened nearly so much before. I live opposite a golf course where there is a large dam, so there are lots of water ducks of various sorts living around this area. Also, being surrounded by some native bushland and lots of big gum trees, there are also wood ducks.

Never a day goes by when the wood ducks, in particular, are not out flirting with each other; the males often almost falling off the gum tree branches in their desire to impress prospective partners of their agility and whatever else female ducks find attractive. First comes a faint male twitter....Hi gorgeous one, in distant tree from a tree far-off across the golf course. Sooner or later I hear a female reply that says something like....I am here but I am busy building a nest....Then there is some movement that catches my eye and I see the male has moved to a closer tree and calls ...Hi again. I was just passing and thought you might need a hand with your nest.... She thinks....How sweet. Maybe I could use a bit of help...but she says...Thank you that would be good but really I can manage by myself. Anyway, what have you got to offer that is better than all the other male ducks?....Now, he preens his feathers, straightens his tie and flies across to a branch of her tree and answers... Well, I can protect you from all the dangers of being a wood duck in this big, wide world. And now I can see how beautiful you are I hope we can get together more often, and be friends, and maybe ......She is not easily fooled by his suave talk but he does sound rather wonderful and so she asks him to come closer for a chat, beak to beak.....All seems to be going well until he gets just a little bit too familiar and suddenly, without any explanation, she flies off and leaves him a little bemused but even more determined to succeed.....This scene evolves, with lots of chatting and laughter and different types of duck-talk, and one day in the future I will see a whole tribe of baby wood ducks waddling about and know that somewhere she found love. Whether or not it was with the kind, flirtatious duck or a strong, handsome duck, we will never know...

There are some birds that like to have a bit more excitement in their lives than just the one partner and even once the babies are born, they are off chasing females from every corner of their world. I saw a TV programme about them recently. Dad says to Mum...Darling, I am just off down to that new tree I told you about to get some treats for the children....She calls back, while stopping the babies from falling out of the nest...OK, take your time and maybe you could call in and pick up some worms while you are out.....He flies off, does a big arc around the forest and lands just a few trees away from his family, where a younger female greets him and leads him to a hole in the tree....Meanwhile, back home the wife is entertaining a visiting male in the same way, who has been waiting patiently for the husband to leave in order to approach...Sometimes, as they showed on TV, the husband returns before the other male has left and a lot of explaining has to be done to avoid a nasty confrontation.These birds have one mate for life, that they live with, but every year they flirt and carry on with several other birds, just for the hell of it.

Then there are the ducks that mate in our pool - who knows if they are the same couples or individual ducks with various partners, often they look quite different to each other - but there is lot of it going on. Quite a few of the ducks around Adelaide are a cross between native and exotic now, as I explained before.....so obviously humans are not the only species that sometimes takes a chance and does a bit of flirting here and there!