Ah, today's early morning walk confirmed what I suspected yesterday, the feathers scattered about did belong to a male hooded merganser, for where there had been an even number of males and females the other day, today there was one extra female, new to her status as widow, circling with the other two pairs that remained on the pond.
But, one could expect that she would do the "birds of a feather" thing, and flock together with these pairs to what will probably be a more northern site where the actual nesting takes place. These are not ducks that mate for life and as the male is only the main event for mating, but other than that leaves all that nesting, child rearing stuff to the female, I imagine she will recover. Sorry I am not savvy enough to include one of those blue, web page-click-now-and know-all the facts kind of things here about mergansers,but if you get a chance, do google them Hooded Merganser,to see how lovely they are. (Here's the link she's talking about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooded_Merganser - added by Laura)
The other two males were having a grand time raising and lowering their crests and doing this thing where they flip their head all the way back,then front again looking a lot like those mechanical ducks in the carnival shooting ranges. Again, I think the courting begins here, but consummates further north. They are hole nesters like the wood duck, and like a wetland, lake or pond. The hatchlings, once they leap out of the tree, are supposed to stick to the Mom like a burr, which could be cute to see. Also,big treat while I watched them was hearing my first amphibian, who knows which frog, sounded like a snoring pickerel, on the sunny side of the pond today. It was glorious with temps into the 50's and we suddenly feel tropical..for the Cape. Hope you had a grand day where ever you are.
From the blogging bog, Pat
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment