Country diary: A tranquil scene that masks a dark contest

Moreland's Meadow, Belfast: The sex life of mallards is aggressive and highly unusual among birds, and has led to a remarkable evolutionary developmentAn eruption of quacks from a female mallard draws my gaze up the River Lagan. Two pairs. Further on, two single males. Familiarity can breed a dismissal of "Oh, it's just a ..." but the mallard drake is a splendid creature.My stare lands on a bottle-green head, its sunlit iridescence melding with the water's reflected sheen to shimmer through his feathers. The primary-yellow bill. The thin white collar over his chocolate-coloured breast. The finely vermiculated porcelain-grey and taupe that sweep down to the rump, with its upturned kiss-curls and white wedge of tail. His mate's plumage is an embroidery of browns, but she shares with him a bright blue flash on the wing's secondary flight feathers, called the speculum. Continue reading...