Mallards...party of 15

Now that the seasonal cottagers have gone back to the Big Smoke, it seems Mallards are the one's partying these days.

There were 15 of them this morning, adult females and many juveniles that are almost fully grown, all fighting for some cracked corn that happened to fall into the lake.

I read that mallards are dabbling ducks, meaning they will stick their heads underwater with their little bottoms sticking up in the air like this......

But the mallards we have dive under making a huge splash.........

.......and pop back up just like little corks.   Look at how the water just rolls off.

I could waste the entire day watching them.

I also read that mallards don't usually dive.
These guys are indeed diving but only about 5' deep. Presumably in terms of ducks, diving means going really deep and chasing after fish much like loons.

A party of 15 mallards diving sure makes a loud splashing noise.

When they take a break, they sun themselves on these rocks.
This fellow looks like a male juvenile and his head feathers are starting to turn dark green.

We're supposed to get Indian Summer this week. It'll be a perfect time to get outside chores done.
Or maybe we'll just sit and watch the mallards.