Birds mate quickly — in a matter of seconds. And while I had seen a mallard rape, I had not seen mallard consensual sex, at least until this afternoon.
From the time of rushing to the camera and picking it up, the mallards went through their head bobbing preliminaries. With the first picture mating was happening, and only the male was visible, for the female was now underwater. A fifth of a second later, she was surfacing and he was posturing with his eyes closed.
The female is being penetrated underwater.
The tw0 of them appear only a fifth of a second later.
Consensual sex while drowning is of course not what Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing is about.
Doug, a second or two of underwater pleasure hardly rates as drowning.
THanks, prurient photographer Alistair!