homosexual wetland birds

[Kayleigh]

Mercury 'turns' wetland birds such as ibises homosexual

Just found this link...

BBC - Earth News - Mercury 'turns' wetland birds such as ibises homosexual

[brendaward]

Oh Kayleigh, my husband is due to have a filling, they contain mercury!

[healfdan]

This summer our local 1.3 ha pond, which acts as a reservoir for water carried off agricultural lands, has suffered as a result of pollution. By far the worst case was when at least two dozen eels were found dying near the water inlet culverts, many of them with lesions on their bodies. The second was when sea water flooded the pond for 2 days as a result of a faulty non return valve. This incident led to the loss of hundreds of fresh water fish and the death of many marginal plants. Now, I do not wish to appear an alarmist but with two pairs of Mallard drakes openly displaying gay tendencies on our beloved pond. should I now consider the possibilty of further pollution from mercury?

[Eryri]

I also find that standing on a branch next to a pond and waving my arms about while making gurgling noises and showing my backside does not always attract the females. This is not always a sign of homosexuality. It's a lifestyle choice.

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by healfdan

This summer our local 1.3 ha pond, which acts as a reservoir for water carried off agricultural lands, has suffered as a result of pollution. By far the worst case was when at least two dozen eels were found dying near the water inlet culverts, many of them with lesions on their bodies. The second was when sea water flooded the pond for 2 days as a result of a faulty non return valve. This incident led to the loss of hundreds of fresh water fish and the death of many marginal plants. Now, I do not wish to appear an alarmist but with two pairs of Mallard drakes openly displaying gay tendencies on our beloved pond. should I now consider the possibilty of further pollution from mercury?

Maybe you should send a water sample in to be tested..

[healfdan]

Hello Kayleigh
With the pollution that could have contributed to the death of the eels, the EA were informed and said that they would check it out within 10 working days. We did try contacting them a few weeks after the event but nobody was available to give us an answer. With the sea water entering fresh water, this was down to mechanical failure and hopefully the problem has now been resolved, although too late for most of the fish stock. As for gay mallards, I guess I will just have to wait until spring, before commenting further.

[Kayleigh]

Yes keep an eye on any unusual behaviour..
They saturate our environment with all sorts of chemicals then weird things start happening with new diseases affecting humans and animals now it looks like chemicals change behaviour wonder what it does to us.

[2dogs2000]

I have heard of this behaviour before, especially in mallards, so I googled mallard drakes and came up with this.


Ducks behave pretty badly, it seems. It is not so much that up to one in 10 of mallard couples are homosexual - no one would raise an eyebrow in the liberal Netherlands - but they regularly indulge in "attempted rape flights" when they pursue other ducks with a view to forcible mating. "Rape is a normal reproductive strategy in mallards," explains Mr Moeliker.

The above quote is from guardian.co.uk

[Dogghound]

We had 2 male mute swans on a local lake which appeared to pair up each spring and build a nest. They then defended the whole lake very aggressively. Unfortunately this kept a lot of other birds away. This year one of the males disappeared and a male and female took up residence and raised 3 young, they were less aggressive and more birds visited the lake as a result.

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by Dogghound

We had 2 male mute swans on a local lake which appeared to pair up each spring and build a nest. They then defended the whole lake very aggressively. Unfortunately this kept a lot of other birds away. This year one of the males disappeared and a male and female took up residence and raised 3 young, they were less aggressive and more birds visited the lake as a result.

That's amazing you can understand the aggression being 2 males.
I would be none the wiser as I cant tell male from female swans.

Thanks for that 2 dogs, I know dolphins rape other dolphins so this behaviour is not surprising but it fascinating none the less..