I've seen this on a couple of occasions. The Mallards were doing it repeatedly
to feed and in groups (families?), adults and juveniles. I've also seen tiny,
weeks-old, Mallards diving, too, mostly to avoid predation or aggression.
Frank
in Monmouth
On 9/4/2021 1:29 PM, Ren Elias Britton wrote:
This morning at the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden in Portland I saw*******
several female or immature Mallards diving fully underwater, instead of just
dabbling. I haven't seen this behavior before (actually, I didn't know they
could swim underwater) and was curious how many other people had seen this
happen? I'm reasonably confident that I correctly identified the birds; it's
possible that they weren't Mallards, but I don't think they were a species of
diving duck.
