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TWO UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES:

Host a Hummingbird Mornings banding demonstration at your facility in Summer 2005

Join us for another Winter Hummingbird Expedition to Costa Rica in November/December 2005

EARLY MORNING WOOD DUCKS

We were at the University of Arkansas most of this week, introducing K-12 students and teachers to Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project and discussing our hummingbird research with professors and graduate students. As a result, our nature observations were limited to occasional glimpses out our office window as we worked on PowerPoint presentations prior to departure. Fortunately, the backyard view includes several bird feeders and all of Hilton Pond, so most days we're guaranteed to witness something of interest. Last week, for example, we spotted a Great Blue Heron perched on one of our Wood Duck nest boxes, and shortly after dawn on 16 February we watched the activities of several waterfowl for which those boxes were actually intended.

All text & photos © Hilton Pond Center

In the early morning light, we glanced up from our work and noticed a few ripples in shallows along the pond edge nearest our office window vantage point. We suspected something was dabbling and, sure enough, in a minute or so six Wood Ducks appeared from behind a cluster of emergent vegetation and slowly began swimming toward the far bank. One of the drakes lingered, but the other five paddled off (above), making overlapping V-shaped wakes on the lightly rippled surface of Hilton Pond. This was a natural moment worth getting up early to see.

The brightly colored solitary male (above) stayed nearby as the other five "woodies" pulled away. Led initially by another drake, the small raft split up at mid-pond, with a male and two females scooting left while the lead male and another female steamed ahead. There was little doubt this particular pair was headed for a nest box near the spillway that handles overflow from Hilton Pond, so we weren't surprised when the hen suddenly sprang up from the water and perched atop the nest box.

Wood Ducks have no trouble holding on to tree limbs and irregular surfaces with their flexible webbed feet, and the female seemed quite comfortable as she walked around atop the box. Occasionally she looked down at the male and--although we couldn't hear her through the window or across the 150-yard distance between us and the spillway--with binoculars we could see her bill opening and shutting; we suspect she was vocalizing to her apparent mate (below). Even though it's still February, this particular hen may already have a few eggs in the box; if not, she'll likely be laying any day now before starting to incubate as her clutch of a dozen or more eggs is complete.

We keep a digital SLR handy for these natural moments, and fortunately our Canon D60 was outfitted with a 100-400mm lens that we zoomed to maximum. We fired off a few exposures and then took time to add a 1.4x telextender, bringing our magnification to 560mm. Getting an acceptable image while hand-holding a telephoto lens at long distance in weak morning light and shooting through window glass was only possible because the lens has an internal stabilization mechanism that minimizes hand shake. At times like this, we're grateful for modern camera technology that allows us to capture photos of Wood Duck behavior--photos that can be shared with folks who weren't able to observe firsthand such fascinating scenes as we saw on a mid-winter morning at Hilton Pond Center.

All text & photos © Hilton Pond Center

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SPECIES BANDED THIS WEEK:
American Goldfinch--22
Chipping Sparrow--1
Carolina Chickadee--1
Song Sparrow--1 *
House Finch--2
Purple Finch--6

* = New species for 2005

WEEKLY BANDING TOTAL
6 species
33 individuals

YEARLY BANDING TOTAL (2005)
16 species
251 individuals

BANDING GRAND TOTAL
(since 28 June 1982)
124 species
45,558 individuals

All text & photos © Hilton Pond Center

NOTABLE RECAPTURES THIS WEEK
(with original banding date, sex, and current age)