I live in the Midwest and raise ducks. Domestics, of course – so their lives are somewhat different than those you watch.

Our family continues to marvel at the social aspect of our peaceful little duck community. Pekins, Rouens, Golden Cascades, and Khaki Campbells.

One of our old gals is on her third ‘pairing’. She mourns deeply the loss of a mate, and will park her white self in the center of the pond, hoping – we think – to catch the eye of a hawk. For a week, she becomes unapproachable. After that, she keeps herself apart from the rest for months! This spring, she found her new mate (a Rouen) and they are inseperable. We have three mated pairs, at this point.

Right now, all of our boys have their curled tail-feathers back – but they’re still cross-dressing otherwise. Twice a year, they do this.

Anyhow – nice to read and know that people out there get into duck watching.

I’ve seen that sort of behavior many times in the early evening, especially up in Maine.

The mid day flight is notable and rare. If you read the secondary literature on nighthakws, it says things like “usually” nocternal and crepuscular. I assume that “usually” means that in the harder literature there is evidence of the occassional day time engorgement.

This is not a case of mistaken identity. The behavior was unusual enough that, even though I could tell in a second that they were nighthawks, we checked carefully.