The Duck "Du Jour"

This is getting to be a very entertaining game for me, each new day, a new duck on the bog pond. Right after I wrote the last blog about the female Hooded Merganser showing up among the Mallards, I took my morning walk with the dog and the female was gone, but there was the male Hooded.
Alone and looking like “a day late and a dollar short”. If she had left a forwarding address I could have passed it on but, alas, no such information was given.

This morning, the male Hooded remains, but the new duck among the throng of Mallards was, once again, a female-a female Bufflehead.
Of course it is so scientifically wrong to be anthropomorphic, but it is so tempting to do so, strictly for the comic angle. So bear with me. But again a female, arriving first, could it be that she was willing to ask for directions and got here sooner? Could it be that she perhaps prefers to travel alone, without having her flying skills criticized along the way? Now we are getting too personal aren’t we Pat, and ridiculous at the same time. Still, it is interesting to wonder if females, not in breeding season, not with young, are fine just travelling with any companionable flock. Ornithologists would have the answer no doubt, but alas, I am not one.

Buffleheads are also here to stay for the winter, coming from the far northern reaches of Canada where they raise their young on lakes. They are hole nesters like Wood Ducks with mom prodding the young out of the tree to flutter, or crash and burn on the ground before following her to the water.
Those lucky Canadians, should they be willing to traipse to the northern most regions of their country, get to see all these incredibly cute antics of young Wood Ducks and Buffleheads. Here’s the other amazing thing, those lakes are free of ice for just about 4 months and that is exactly the time it takes for these ducks to mate and raise their family before heading south again.

Speaking of ornithology, and the fact as I have mentioned many times, that each branch of science has its own “inside” terminology; do you know a “flock” of ducks is only truly a “flock” when it is flying. When they are on the water, they are either a “raft” of ducks, a term we do often see or a “paddle” of ducks which is far more fun but less used perhaps because people would think you were writing for a children’s book. To see a “bunch” of ducks is also correct but a far less impressive word.

Soon, we shall be heading south to be with my daughter’s family in Tennessee, and aberrant ducks will just have to come and go without my noticing. It will be interesting to see if any of the birds that have recently left here get passed along the way down Rte 95. How far have the flocks of Grackles gotten or the Red-wing Blackbirds? New Jersey? Delaware? We shall see.

Consequently, there may be a bit of a No-Blog zone for awhile over Thanksgiving but I hope to find time to resume writing from TN after the holiday. Elena and I shall be enticing birds to her door again and noting the comings and goings of the wrens and whatever else is to be found nearby. Till then I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving and may we all appreciate how truly blessed we are just to be given eyes to see the beauty around us and a mind to wonder about it all. “In all things give thanks” and we do God, we do.