Local Ponds & Ducks!

Wood Duck Pond

This week I drove down to a pond that I only frequent in the winter. It's located about an hour from our home, down in the upper foothills. I had my fingers crossed that there would be some Wood Ducks present, like the previous four years. When I arrived at the pond it looked mostly unoccupied, but then at the far northern end I spotted some Wood Ducks in full view! I only got a few quick photos of them before they hid themselves in the tules that bordered the pond. Yay, Wood Ducks! I was delighted to see them once again! 

Wood Duck (male) - Aix sponsa

The males are so beautifully colored and strikingly marked! The females, like most female birds, are way less colorful and more camouflaged. Wood Ducks feed on nuts (especially acorns), seeds, algae and other water plants, butterflies and moths, beetles and insects, ants, dragonflies, slugs, and snails.

Wood Ducks live in California year-round, from the coast to the foothills. They nest in the foothills of the western Sierra, usually below 3,000' - 4,000' in elevation. They are tree-cavity nesters, but do not use abandoned woodpecker cavities, except for the large ones made by Pileated Woodpeckers. They mainly use natural cavities that have formed in a mature tree, often where a branch has broken off due to heart rot. 

Wood Duck (male - female) - Aix sponsa

The Wood Duck is the only North American duck that regularly produces two broods in one 5-6 month breeding season! The female lays 10-13 eggs in her feather-lined nest, anytime between March and June. The incubation period is 30 days. The ducklings are born precocial, and leave the nest usually within 24 hours after hatching. They jump to the ground and their mother leads them to water, where they immediately start feeding! After approximately 30 days, the female abandons the young ducklings, to start another brood! This pond is in the right elevation/location for these ducks to nest, and I have seen young Wood Ducks here in the past!

2/3/2024

Joubert's Diggins

I check the ponds in the above photo at least once a week.  Lately there has been an increase in the waterfowl population, as well as the arrival of two new species!

Ring-necked Duck - Athya collaris

In addition to the two separate ponds pictured above, there is a third pond that you have to hike downhill to see. When I got there, there was a single male Ring-necked Duck swimming around with four Bufflehead Ducks! I had never seen a Ring-necked Duck at any of the three ponds before!  What a surprise! The ring around the male's neck is barely visible, if at all. I think they should have been named the Ring-BILLED Duck! 

These ducks are uncommon in our area. In the fall they come down from the subarctic deltas, taiga, and boreal forests across Canada where they breed and raise their young. They spend the winters in the lower US and Central America. In California they are common on the coast, across the central valley, and into the foothills, where there are low elevation lakes and ponds. 

Ring-necked Duck - Bufflehead (2 females - 1 male) 

Athya collaris - Bucephala albeola

I found it so interesting how the Ring-necked Duck hung around with the Bufflehead Ducks. I didn't see any other Ring-necks in any of the ponds. Like Buffleheads, Ring-necked Ducks dive for their food in shallow water. Except possibly during breeding, diets of male and female are similar, consisting mostly of plant foods (seeds and below-ground plant parts). 

Bufflehead (4 males - 2 females) - Bucephala albeola

Buffleheads are fairly common at Joubert's Diggins. This week I saw a combined total of 6 males and 4 females, on the three ponds. They must be pairing up by now. In the spring the majority of them will migrate north to Alaska and northern Canada to breed, while some may stay and breed in our local Lakes Basin!   

Bufflehead (female - male) - Bucephala albeola 

The male Bufflehead is definitely more boldly marked than the female! Buffleheads are cavity nesters, usually cavities excavated by Northern Flickers and, occasionally, Pileated Woodpeckers. They avoid cavities with broken/open tops.

Hooded Mergansers ( female - male) - Lophodytes cucullatus

This pair of Hooded Mergansers has been residing on these ponds for about a month.  Just this week I saw an additional male!  These ducks will fly north to western Canada to breed, in the spring.  In the meantime, I love seeing them in our local ponds! Their diet consists of fish, crayfish, aquatic insects, amphibians, as well as a small amount of plants.

Mallard (female - male) - Anas platyrhynchos

A pair of Mallards showed up this week!  I wonder if they're the same pair that's been here in the winter for several years.  They will stay and raise their young in these ponds. They feed on a wide variety of plants and animals.  The following information about their diet is from birdsoftheworld.org.

"Omnivorous and opportunistic, generalist feeder. During breeding season, eats mostly animal foods, including insects such as midge larvae, and other Diptera, dragonflies, and caddisfly larvae, aquatic invertebrates such as snails and freshwater shrimp, and terrestrial earthworms. Outside of breeding season, diet predominately seeds from moist-soil plants, acorns, aquatic vegetation, and cereal crops (especially corn, rice, barley, and wheat). Agricultural foods usually dominate diet during autumn migration and often during winter, depending on the relative availability of natural versus agricultural foods. In winter, urban Mallards often rely entirely on human-provided food, such as bread or seeds."

Charles Marsh Pond

I've only seen Hooded Mergansers at the Charles Marsh Pond so far.  There are six of them, probably three pairs. I never tire of seeing them! They are only here for the winter and will fly north to western Canada to breed and raise their young. Like Wood Ducks, Hooded Mergansers nest in tree cavities! Suitable cavities occur in live or dead tree trunks, large limbs, broken off limbs, and at the top of broken off tree trunks.

Hooded Mergansers (males) - Lophodytes cucullatus

The following information is from birdsoftheworld.org.

"The Hooded Merganser is the smallest of three North American mergansers (Hooded, Common, and Red-breasted) and the only one restricted to this continent. Breeding throughout a wide area in the forested east and northwest -- where suitable nest cavities enhance adequate brood habitat -- it is most common in the Great Lakes region."

Hooded Mergansers (male - female - male) - Lophodytes cucullatus

"Favorite winter habitats include forested freshwater wetlands, brackish estuaries, and tidal creeks. Unlike other mergansers which feed almost exclusively on fish, Hooded Mergansers have a more diverse diet, diving and capturing small fish, aquatic insects, and crustaceans, particularly crayfish, with the aid of eyes well-adapted to underwater vision."

1/23/23

Winter Snowpack Update

Ten days ago, on January 23, my husband and I drove up to the Lakes Basin to check on the snow conditions. To our surprise the southern side of the Buttes, viewed from Sierra City, was almost totally snow free!

1/23/23

The east-facing side of the Sierra Buttes was snow covered, but the trees were snow free and the forest floor only had 6" of patchy wet snow!

Saddleback - 2/3/24

However, this week snow has finally fallen at the higher elevations, while it continues to rain in our neighborhood.  I am really enjoying the lack of snow shoveling this winter!  More cold weather is in the forecast for the coming week, again with high snow levels. I hope the higher elevation snowpack really builds up this week! So far our water-year precipitation total is 22.34".

Where are the mammals?

What's happening on the river?

Check back next week for the answers to these questions and more.

Your questions and comments are always appreciated. Please email me at northyubanaturalist@gmail.com.