REQUIEM FOR A WOOD DUCK FAMILY

Sad update on our wood ducks:  last time I had a picture of papa sitting near the nest box and guarding.  This morning when I looked out, the box was askew and it looked like the bottom was hanging down.  I feared the worst and unfortunately was correct; the nest had been predated.  Not sure of the predator as we have several around.  We're thinking coon or fisher rather than snake or rodent because the box had the bottom knocked out and was crooked on the tree, so it was probably something heavy. 

We counted 6 identifiable egg shells (there were likely more than that) in the leaves or in the down that the female had pulled from her breast to keep the eggs warm.

Wood Duck egg, just to right and above of center

We wonder if that was what Blake was barking about this morning...
May they find a new hole and have better luck in a second nesting.

OF BIRDS AND NESTS AND MORNING CHORUSES

Spring is clearly here.  The birds are going crazy in the morning and nesting is happening everywhere!  I gave Blake a haircut the other day so that I could put out some nice soft dog hair for nests and it is flying off of the tree branches and the suet cage where I put it. I watch it disappear by the beakfuls!  

I had been wanting to take our Christmas wreath and put it someplace less busy, but still in the protected area of the carport so that the Carolina Wrens could have it as a nesting place if so desired.  I figured I'd put some plastic behind it to protect the wall, but I couldn't quite decide where to put it, so I hadn't yet moved it.  I went out a couple days ago and the little wren almost hit me as it came bombing out of the wreath.  Too late; it will stay where it is!  

Isn't it just beautiful??  The Carolinas tend to make a side entrance nest.  The male will also often build several nests and then the female decides which one to use.  I don't think this one is the chosen nest.

This morning it was 42º which is definitely warm enough for us to go back to our early morning sit-on-the-porch time.  We were a bit late this AM, slept in until 5, so we didn't catch first bird, but we sure got the full chorus!  I felt bad for Carol & Joe as the Pileated Woodpecker was drumming on a big, dead, hollow branch, right outside their bedroom window!  Linda quipped, "There should be an ordinance against construction companies working this early in the morning!"  It was REALLY loud! 

We heard our Carolina, of course - hard to miss his ""Tea kettle, Tea kettle, Tea"!  There were robins "Cheerily, chirup!" and the "Peter Peter" of the tufted titmouse and we have seven local Blue Jays - they were in full voice.  Very quietly, underneath all of this cacophony, was the call of the White-throated sparrow, "Oh, sweet Canada, Canada, Canada".  One pair of the blue-birds are still around, which surprises me (OH!  Outside my window there is a blue jay pair on the dead crabapple tree and he is feeding her!  Sweet).

And on the pond, Wood Ducks.  This one was sitting on the tree near the duck box.

So much activity!  And it is especially wonderful in the morning!!  Bundle up and sit outside with your coffee or tea right around dawn.  You'll be glad you did. 

PILEATED, PALM WARBLER & TURTLES

Grey day, but warm and a pleasant wind.  Too much to paddle, though, given my shoulder.  Hard raking, too!  :-)
Several interesting sightings recently:

• A pileated woodpecker moving through the dead trees along the shore of the pond
• A pair of wood ducks
• Several phoebes, some snagging mosquitoes and other bugs from over the pond, some doing their territorial call around our house, some sitting in branches
• Two Palm Warblers - beautiful birds!  We have seen them only once before.  Very bright yellow breast and belly, with some rufous lines on the breast along the wings, a rufous cap and yellow stripes above and below the eyes.  The thing that called my attention to them, instead of, "Oh, its just a goldfinch", was the bird bobs its tail continuously!  They are not feeder birds, but may be seen on the ground or in the pine trees.  They are in migration, heading further north.
• Juncos are still here
• Haven't seen the bluebirds recently, but also haven't been at my desk where I see them in the morning
• MANY Painted Turtles today!  Linda thought the log looked funny; that was because there were 10 turtles on it.  I went to take some pictures and discovered that there were 40+ on the three logs up stream a bit on the pond.  I spooked the 10 on the initial log, but some came back.  

I count about 40 here!

7 of the original 10

SONGBIRDS & MUSKRAT LODGE

Brrr!  Chilly this morning!  I should have brought some gloves.  Gorgeous, though; the rising sun shines through all the fall leaves and reflects off of the rain drops.  

I spent most of my time watching the small song birds today.  There were Eastern Phoebes in the berry bushes on the north side, near the muskrat lodge.  Other birds were there, too, but I couldn't ID them (I'm not really very good at the non-feeder birds, especially warblers and most especially FALL warblers!).  A couple were sparrow like, maybe even a pine siskin, but it seems early for the siskins.  Another had a soft-yellow belly!  There are a lot of berries over there, so many birds feed in those bushes.  It is worth another look.

The muskrat lodge seemed bigger than the last time I looked at it, yet it still seems about 3 feet tall.  Possibly it was just easier to see because the bushes are dying away, or maybe they have added to it some; the position of the sticks and such seem a little bit different, but the size seems about the same.

Muskrat Lodge Oct 10, 2012

Muskrat Lodge, Oct 2, 2012

I saw two muskrat crossings (same animal or two different ones?). One took back a large water chestnut plant.

I tried some new technology while out on the pond and used Dragon Dictate on my iPhone to keep track of the birds and such.  It worked well and I could speak through the waterproof case!  A few problems, like "60 candidate geese" and "would ducks"  Hmmm...  Here is the list:

• 60 Canada geese in upper end of pond. 
• Four more in lower end of pond. 
• 15 wood ducks in lower end of pond and about 30 more mid-pond, maybe more but I can't see all the way to the end of the pond.
• Lower end of pond had so many ducks & geese that you could almost walk across the pond on the back of the birds. Seem to be mallards and black ducks.
• Great Blue flying overhead, croaking all the way. 
• Two swan together near the brook inlet
• Kingfisher flew over. 
• Several blue jays calling in the tree.  Hawk overhead. Two hawks overhead. That's probably what the blue jays are complaining about. 
• No otters today; I haven't seen them in a while. But on the other hand, we were gone all weekend and I've only been out paddling twice in the last week.

SWANS ARE BACK!

Nice paddle this morning.  Met two of the swans that were reported at the end of last week (Carol S said she had seen three on Thursday!)

Spoke to a fisherman on the dam who said he had caught 3 small bass this morning.

A muskrat was busy chowing down in the water chestnuts and brought one home.  For some reason, he wasn't bothered by me today and I was quite close - I could see his teeth as he was eating!  (With binoculars)  Couldn't get any decent pictures though, cuz I just had my point and shoot, it was still pretty dark and he moved a lot. 

We seem to be back to the normal number of wood ducks (down from the 50 some I saw a while back!), although, they could have mostly been up stream.  Saw one great blue and several geese.  Otherwise, a quiet & lovely morning.

UPPER POND NEAR THE BROOK INLET

I thought I'd go to the upper end of the pond today and leave the muskrats alone.  Blake & I got in the canoe, shoved off shore and I noticed the sure sign of otters swimming in the water, so it was quite a while before I even go out of our cove!  The otters (looked like 4 but turned out to be 5!) were cavorting in the water while swimming across the pond - moving fast!  When they got to the north side, they got up on shore and some (probably the young ones) were chasing and playing in the bushes.  Then there were 3 in the water and still some ruckus on the shore.  Now there were four in the water, some swimming on top of each other!  They see me... 4 heads turned our way and staring at us!  Here comes the fifth otter, chuffing and complaining.  All go under and disappear.  Then I saw the lodge.  Theirs?  Seems small.  I left it to look at later after the animals had managed to go to safety.  The lodge is right near where they were playing and swimming and where they were on land.  I've watch them in this spot before and I swear there was nothing there last week!  I'll have to keep an eye on it - it is probably just shy of 3 feet tall (the part out of the water).

UPPER END OF POND
It is possible to more easily paddle toward the upper end of the pond, but there are still a lot of water chestnuts up there, more than in the center area.  (Our central area muskrats are doing a good job of eating those darn plants!  I saw some muskrats nibbling away this AM.  No swimming branches, though).  Lots of birds in the upper end.  As I approached, I flushed 15 geese, 37 wood ducks, a great blue heron & 2 double crested cormorants.  Many of them landed in the inlet of the brook which looked too full to add any more birds to the collection of geese, mallards and black ducks that were already there!

It is still very shallow and mucky, so it is hard to go far.  The rain over the weekend helped, but not enough to make it fun paddling. 


After checking out the upper end, I went back to the center and looked at the lodge.

Wish I'd had my SLR camera - there would have been a great shot: a great blue on the upper branch of a snag, with a cormorant sitting closer to the water, about 2 bird lengths away.  They looked content with each others' company.  

Again, leave comments on what YOU have seen.  If there is no comment box visible, click on the word "comments" and a box will show up.  If you put your sightings in there, I'll add them to my list that I started in the right column.