Entertained by a Bevy of Buffleheads

One positive side of this nomadic life I am leading is that life is always a surprise. I leave this part of the globe for another for 10 days and come home to a largely altered landscape. In my absence this time; the cranberry leaves completed their turn from summer olive drab to winter maroon, well, winter cranberry really, the leaves of the Tupelos at the waters edge are all on the ground, while the yellow and russet Oaks come down one by one, but best of all, the winter ducks have begun to cover the pond.

At the bog pond at my house, I used to wish there was a sign in sheet somewhere, for one day the pond would have Green Wing Teals, then later Hooded Mergansers and a few Buffleheads and they would come and go without a “by your leave”. Such is the way with a migrating duck. Here on the pond in Falmouth, I woke that first misty day to see, not only the pair of swans coming through this mist, but rafts of Ring Necked ducks and a whole flotilla of Buffleheads.

And let me say right here, I LOVE Buffleheads.
I love the way they can all be on the surface one minute, then, like a well practiced diving team, all disappear at once.
I used to think the one or two Buffleheads left on the surface just represented the clueless few who somehow, and I could always personally relate to this, missed the signal that “we are all diving under now”. In researching these ducks I found that no, they aren’t clueless, they are the brave sentinels that will watch out for danger as the others fill up on pond weeds and the many yummy insects and snails that cling to them.

And whereas you may see huge flocks of other diving ducks, say the Eiders and Scoters that you see on the bays, these Buffleheads are so testy at times that they could never get along in such huge numbers. The 50 or so I had on my pond are about as large as their flocks get. They are the smallest diving duck, about 13-15” and maybe they have a “Napoleon complex” but either way they are reported to be among the feistiest.

Even though it isn’t the breeding season, and they are only stopping by for awhile, so you wouldn’t think territorial disputes would break out, I stood and watched two males, chase and head-bob like crazy at each other, all seemingly over the one female in their midst. They do mate for life, so maybe the one male was making moves on the others Mrs, such a shameless society we live in today, but either way they kept chasing each other, continuing far longer than I had time to watch.

And here is the fun part of watching Buffleheads go through these kind of antics; they charge each other, then fly a short way past to come to a truly skidding halt in front of the other duck. In this case these two kept skidding past the female, then past each other and always you could just imagine the cartoon-like puffs of smoke under their webbed feet. Really, other ducks come in for a splashy landing, but I don’t know of any other that truly seem to “skid in”. Probably others do, I just don’t know about them.

So, if by any chance you have Buffleheads in your area, and you might for they fan out from Canada coming south on all the major flyways, take a moment to watch and if you are lucky, you may see either the disappearing-underwater-at-once act, or the skidding-into-home scene; wonderful entertainment for a fall day.

I also have wracks of Ring Necked ducks but we shall deal with them later. You have a life to get back too. Ah, by the way, a friend at work came up with a good new name for this blog. Once I have to truly leave I can call it a “blog without a bog”! Although for the sake of easy finding I would keep the website the same. But for nowjj I still have the joy of a pond and a bog and the ocean and the woods. Lucky me.