Rose Dickson
12 September 2008
1021 – 1045 hours
Facing the Mill Creek, with my back about 30 yards from The Bistro on Willamette University campus, Salem, OR, USA
68 degrees, partly cloudy
I’m not a morning person. Walking to breakfast at 10:30 feels almost like a betrayal of my better judgment. Yawning is now only second to breathing, coming instantaneously one after the other. As I trudge along- attempting to get my act together, I become startled. A mallard duck (Anas plathyrhynchos) jumps out right in front of my pathway, scavenging on a carcass of some sort of dead bird. My sleepy eyelids lift as I become alert and ready to observe the situation. There are two mallard ducks, a male and a female. Each have a beautiful blue feather hidden deep within the others. The male is decorated in colors of green and blue and the female is a practical brown-grey. The male especially seems to be losing some of his more colorful feathers. This is due to the conclusion of breeding season; soon the female will begin molting as well. Both, however, are entirely occupied in this carcass, picking and digging at it with their beaks. Aren’t mallards vegetarian? The National Geographic says that they mostly feed on plants and grains but occasionally dabble at fish and amphibians. Why, then, are these mallards picking at this carcass? A carcass of what seems to be a dead bird, will this make them sick? Even observing this, is making me feel a little sick. I think breakfast can wait.
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