It’s a risky business, this coming down to the water to breed. It pays to be discrete. There are many things that can eat you, if you’re a frog. Most frogs in our area don’t necessarily spend all their time in water. Many species can be found some distance from water when not breeding. Pickerel frogs are one of those species. They are, however, breeding at this time of year and therefore in our Wetlands in numbers attemptingRead more
Posts tagged: #Hooded Merganser
Nest Box Clean-up and Mix-up
If you’ve ever been in Explore the Wild and looked out over our Wetlands here at the Museum you may have noticed that there are two wood duck nest boxes planted there. One is on the far side of the Wetlands, the other on a small island about halfway across the water. The nest boxes are there in an attempt to convince a pair or two of the hooded mergansers that winter here at the Museum into stayingRead more
Waterfowl
The waterfowl situation here at the Museum has been sketchy as of late. With the shallow water being frozen at least some of the early morning hours, the groups of mergansers that we experienced earlier in the season have disappeared. They’ve apparently found better ponds and lakes to catch fish and socialize. Two mergansers, however, seem loyal to our site. It’s difficult to determine if the pair is indeed the same two mergs that I regularly see here inRead more
Duck Dance and Snowy Owl Update
If you haven’t been down to the Museum’s Wetlands lately you should make a point of doing so. As I’ve mentioned several times in the last few weeks, the merganser numbers have increased. I’ve not seen as many of these magnificently plumaged birds in our Wetlands in the past 7 years. And, they’re putting on quite a show. Pair bond displays are taking center stage out on the water. Sounds of splashing water and the rolling, croaking,Read more
A nice day to be out in the Wetlands
With daytime air temps reaching fifty-nine degrees on Wednesday (12/17), at least one of our resident turtles made it out for a little sunbathing. A male yellow-bellied slider was awakened by the intense sunshine of the day. The sun’s warm penetrating rays apparently reaching and warming the bottom of the pond sufficiently to stimulate the turtle into crawling out on a log and bask away the afternoon. It’s in no way unusual to see a turtle outRead more
Hooded Merganser Follow-up
Last week I posted about our visiting hooded mergansers and their pair bond displays out on the Wetlands. There’s another dance, or display, which I also sometimes see here at the Museum. It involves the male swimming zig-zag circles around the female with quick turns to the left, to the right, and back again. The display also includes frequent side to side head shakes, and what I can best describe as nervous twitching, stretching, preening, and other distraction-type behaviors.Read more
Making the Pair Bond
Yes, it’s that time of year again when the male mergansers that call our Wetlands their winter home, strut their stuff in an effort to win the hearts of the females. The males perform pair bond displays in the fall and winter, pumping out their chests, shaking their black and white crested heads, rearing back and emitting rolling, croaking sounds. It’s much more efficient for these ducks to form pairs during the winter. Time is critical during the breedingRead more
Home Ice
We’ve had over a dozen hooded mergansers in the Wetlands for the past week or so. Monday and Tuesday nights (11/17 & 11/18) were cold enough to freeze over the water. There was one merganser on the pond Wednesday morning. The lone merg swam back and forth in a small open spot of water nervously looking about, presumably, for an escape route should she need it. The bird was fairly close to the Wetlands Overlook and I was making her nervous.Read more