A story of Mallards, a Kingfisher and a Deer in a hurry

Yesterday, I visited a friends lake, where I often have my hide set up to photograph Kingfishers.

Whilst the kingfisher did put in a very brief appearance, the highlight of the day, were two pairs of Mallards who spent a couple of hours, fighting over who's territory the lake belonged to!

It's wonderful, when I get the opportunity to totally immerse myself in a nature story that unfolds directly in front of me, and watching this stuggle for supremacy left me with very mixed feelings for the two protagonists! 

I had been settled in the hide for around an hour, when the first pair of Mallards arrived and settled down to enjoy themselves.  OK, so it was just a pair of ducks, but unlike the UK, where just about every inland body of water is covered in wildfowl, here in remote rural France, it is a very different story. With over 1000 lakes in our area, the local wildlife is spoiled for choice and therefore spread themselves very thinly (in fact, it is very rare to find any kind of duck on this lake).

Around half an hour later, the second pair arrived, and whilst this lake had plenty of room for everyone, it did not take long for the newcomers to start to demonstrate their authority.  The male, aggressively approached the original pair and chased the male off; taking flight, to press home his advantage and make clear, that there was only room for one pair of ducks on this lake!

However, our original male, was made of stern stuff and just circled the lake, before setting back down on the water with his mate.  It was very quickly apparent, that the situation was going to escalate and he was soon chased off yet again. - This merry go round continued four times, before he was finally and firmly driven away, leaving his mate alone, and now hiding in the reeds at the side of the lake.

Yes, I know it was nature, but I had now invested my emotions with this 'original' pair and felt desperately sorry for them.....after all, they were there first and were just minding their own business, when these 'upstarts' arrived and caused havoc!

For the next hour, the staus quo was reached and the infiltrators enjoyed feeding and exploring their new playground. It was during this period, that the Kingfisher arrived and although he would not come as close as usual, he did land around 20 mtrs away and allowed me to rattle off some frames and also take a short video - Please use this link to watch it on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLJFv1QnPas

Whilst this was going on, the original female Mallard had eventually taken flight, hopefully to find and reunite with her male?

Having taken over the lake as their own, the new owners of the lake, hung around for another hour and having got bored, flew off together! (images further down the page)

Calm, once again descended on the water and I decided to stay around for another hour, in the hope that something else might turn up and give me another photo opportunity.  It did not take long! - This Deer appeared across the far bank and spent a couple of minutes 'haring' around at great speed, before disappearing back into the woods.

The next visitor, was the 'original' male Mallard that had been chased away earlier and had now returned to look for his mate. -  He spent over an hour, swimming around the lake, constantly calling for her, but to no avail. - When I left the lake, he was still there, and I can only hope that they found each other after I had gone.

So, an interesting morning, which left me uplifted by the images that I had captured, whilst saddened by the plight of a couple of ducks!

Here are some of those images, which I hope you enjoy:

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