I saw a pair of mallard ducks mating in my backyard for the first time this spring and it was gruesome!
What caught my eye was a tornado of several ducks trying to perform an emergency landing. The drake smashed into one of the hens and she fell like a stone into my backyard while the other hens slid into my neighbour’s backyard to safety.
The drake slammed down on top of the stunned hen and began viciously pecking her in the back of her head and neck. He mounted her and mated and then proceeded to fall off her as if he were drunk.
She crawled into the flower bed, bruised and tired while he stumbled around the yard dragging his uncoiled member behind him.
As a hunter and angler I enjoy watching wildlife - both in the field, and in my yard - but this was one of the strangest and most violent courtships I’d ever seen!
