Wood Ducks way high up in a tree

-
[Click on Read More below to see close up pic] While walking on the Canon City Riverwalk a few days ago I was very surprised to spot a Wood Duck perched on a large cottonwood tree at least 70-80 feet above the ground. While I have seen a number of Wood Ducks in trees I have never seen one this high up. As I watched through my binoculars he walked around this large branch then jumped/flew down to a slightly lower branch. After several minutes a second Wood Duck, this one a female, appeared from behind a branch maybe 10-15 feet below the first duck and within a few seconds she flew off followed quickly by the male. Since Wood Ducks do nest in large cavities in trees near water (this location is less than 50 feet from the Arkansas River, see nest site info below), I suspect this is a pair and that the female was house shopping. Maybe since this location is near the Sell's Lake Trailhead and is a very busy area below she decided to look far up above all the human related disturbance. I tried to see if I could see a cavity in the area the female was located but there were too many branches in the way. Just click on pic to enlarge it (but close up pic is below}

Following is what Birds of North America online says about Wood Duck nest sites: "Cavity nester, but does not excavate cavity; instead uses preformed cavities.... Male accompanies female in search of nest cavities, but he plays no role in selection (Grice and Rogers 1965, Bellrose 1976a). Searching is usually done in early morning; male waits nearby while female enters and examines cavity .... Selection may take several days (Bellrose 1976a)." "Cavities average 7.3 m above ground (n = 375, range = 0.6–17.3 m) with higher sites preferred (Soulliere 1990b). " 17.3 meters = about 57 feet, so this female duck was looking at a height of about 55 to 70 feet above the ground, towards the upper limits of their known nesting height. SeEtta Se

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spotted Sandpiper Chicks, 3 more days older

-
Image
Two days when I went to check on the Spotted Sandpiper family at Florence River Park I thought they had likely perished--there were two men engaged in gold panning right where the parent sandpiper had been and they had dug some of the sand from the bank where I last saw the sandpiper chicks. Arggh, I was afraid that all this activity, plus a large off leash dog with these people, would have scared the parent away and even if the chicks were successful in hiding in the vegetation they would not survive without a parent at their young age. What a surprise when I returned that evening for one last check to be accosted by the parent sandpiper calling loudly and challenging me by walking right towards me (and my dog). It took awhile for the parent to settle down and for one of the chicks to walk in some grass where I could spot it--the parent had moved the chicks about 150 from the river into an area with a lot of vegetation. I returned day before yesterday and refound the parent and
Read more

Recently fledged Common Raven

-
Image
At the end of March this year I spotted a Common Raven going into a crevice above a rock face of a local cliff area called Castle Rock (as part of it looks sort of like a castle). I started watching this area and observed a pair of Common Ravens spending time around this location. On March 27 I spotted one of the ravens inside the crevice which now had what looked like nesting material in it--the photograph of that is the second pic here. I continued off and on to check this apparent crevice nest. At the end of May I saw what appeared to be a nestling inside the crevice. I continued birding in the riparian forest across the Arkansas River from this cliff area. When I was about a quarter mile away I heard a lot of raven racket and walked to a spot where I could see the cliff area through my binoculars. I could see a lot of raven action with the parent birds calling loudly so I expected that the nestling may have fledged or they were trying to get it to fledge. I went back t
Read more