A photographer has posted dramatic recent photos of a group of ~10 wood duck drakes copulating with a female accompanied by four ducklings. See tenth row of photos at http://www.pbase.com/lesleylou/fla2007 We have all noticed that drake woodies routinely abandon hens at the nest, then assemble in groups, but this subsequent behavior is new to me. Maybe it's because the photos are from Florida, where these ducks would presumably have more time to double-brood. I read in Bellrose (p. 189 in the third edition) that Aix sponsa is our only duck species known to double-clutch in a single season, but the phenomenon is unusual. I imagine the evolutionary advantage of this behavior is the off-chance the female will bring off another clutch, and that pair-bonding such as occurs for a first brood is less efficient to produce a second. That's on the assumption a hen is susceptible to impregnation with young of this age. Am I right about this? Has any reader witnessed this sort of behavior here? I assume other duck species don't do this. Anthropomorphic points of view, such as "gang rape," are beside the point here, of course. Bill Whan Columbus ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]