Wood Duck Nest Quest

This year I saw the first Wood Ducks of the year in Eliza Howell Park in Detroit on March 7. A few Wood Ducks always arrive in March and spend the breeding season in the park. But in all these years I have not yet found one of their nests.

Maybe this year!

     Note: All the bird photos here are from Margaret Weber.

In the last ten years I have kept a record of the active bird nests that I find in EHP. I have located the nests of 38 different species, several nests of many of them. But no Wood Duck nests, even though I annually see at least one female with young in the summer, evidence that they are breeding here.

Wood Ducks get their name from the fact that they nest in trees, in cavities. Their nests  are usually in woodlands near ponds and rivers. Eliza Howell is a good location for them, with the river running through a woodland that has many old trees with natural cavities.

The male is striking.

And the female, more subtle, is likewise very attractive.

I usually find bird nests by watching birds (1) building nests, (2) on or entering nests, or (3) taking food to young in nests.

Wood Ducks (1) do not build a nest; they find a hole in a tree that is suitable and line it with nothing but some the female’s own down. They (2) enter the nest very seldom. The female lays one egg a day until the large clutch (perhaps 8 – 10 eggs) is complete and then begins to incubate them, leaving the nest very little. They (3) do not feed the young in the nest. All the eggs hatch at about the same time and, when the ducklings are one day old, their mothers calls them and they climb out of the cavity and drop to the ground (sometime dozens of feet) and follow the mother to water.

So it is understandable that their nest is difficult to locate. I think my best chance may be when they are selecting the nest site, when the male accompanies the female as they check out possibilities. Two are easier to see than one.

While Wood Ducks are regulars in the breeding season, they are not present in great numbers. My best estimate is that, in any given year, there are only 2 – 3 breeding pairs in the park. After eggs are laid, the male is not actively involved in caring for the young, as is typical of duck species. The female does not feed the young; she watches over them as they eat on their own.

The male spends the summer on his own or with other males.

Because they are cavity-nesting birds, Wood Ducks will sometimes use bird boxes. In late 2018, thanks to the efforts of several friends of Eliza Howell, three Wood Duck boxes were installed in the park. Ducks did not use any of them in the first year, 2019, but they are now providing additional cavities near the river. 

The Wood Ducks have returned and I renew my quest to locate a nest.

Maybe this will be the year.

I say this every year, but 2020 just might really be the year!

 

Another Flood – and Historic Crests

About 2 inches of rain fell in the Detroit area on Saturday, January 11, 2020, and the Rouge River again flooded in Eliza Howell Park. On 9:45 on the morning of January 12, when I walked toward the footbridge, I saw acres and acres of flooded woodland. This was the only the third time, in my many visits, that I saw water flowing over the bridge.

As those familiar with the park know, the water level varies a lot, but the footbridge is usually many feet above the water level. Here is a picture from November of 2019.

Unable to cross the footbridge, I left and re-entered the park from the end of Lyndon Street on the east side of the park. Before long, as soon as I left the higher ground, I again came to water as far as I could see.

The flood stage for the Rouge River in Detroit is 15 feet. I have not yet seen an official report on the height of the crest on this flood, but it was probably over 17 feet. That would mean that it is among the top 12 highest in the many years that the National Weather Service has been keeping records. Below is a list of the highest historical crests (those over 17 feet, according to NWS. It is noteworthy that, including this one, three of the 12 are in the last 2 years.

Floods have consequences and it will be interesting to see any significant impact on the habitat and on the plants and animals that live near the river. As soon as the water receded sufficiently, I took a walk in the woods. The leaves, branches, and other material on the forest floor had been swept along until they were caught by logs, tree trunks/limbs, and shrubs.

Beaver have recently arrived in Eliza Howell and their residence is, in all probability, in a burrow dug into the bank of the river. Such burrows start under water and angle up to a dry “nest” where the beaver rest during the day and where they have their kits. What impact is there when the water is feet over the bank, and over the resting area, for a day or two? I will be looking for indications of their continuing presence.

Nature is quite adaptable and, in my post-flood walk, I was noting how birds, including Black-capped Chickadees, were attracted to the new concentrations of potential food brought together by the water. Chickadees were finding many smaller seeds among the nuts in piles like this.

There are new “mudflats” where the water moved the leaves and, in the mud, track evidence that mammals are active. These tracks look like the prints of Coyote (left), Raccoon, and Deer.

Nature is adaptable, but having three floods cresting at over 17 feet in 2 years is not normal. I hope I don’t witness another one anytime soon.

 

Beaver!

For the first time in the years that I have been engaged in nature study in Eliza Howell Park, I am now seeing signs of beaver activity. There are some 20 small trees near the river (the largest are about 4 inches in diameter) that have recently been cut down and removed.

Beaver were an important part of Michigan’s history; the pursuit of their pelts was a major factor in the movement of Europeans into this part of the country. Unlimited trapping resulted in their being extirpated from this area some 150 years ago.

Some are now returning. In the last decade, they have been found along the Detroit River (including on Belle Isle) and a few have appeared in the Rouge River system. Until now, to my knowledge, none has been reported this far upstream on the Main branch of the Rouge.

I have not yet actually seen a beaver in the park (they are largely nocturnal), but I know of nothing else that cuts down trees and leaves these teeth marks.

Young beaver stay with their parents until 2 years old or so, when they leave to find a mate and establish their own lodge and colony. Perhaps the signs of beaver activity in Eliza Howell mean that a new pair is taking up residence here, for the first time since long before this area was established as a park.

There is a lot I do not know about beaver from personal observation. They were not in the various areas I have walked regularly during my life and my observations of them when visiting other locations were limited. There is much for me to learn.

While most descriptions of beaver lodges are of conical lodges in a pond formed by a dam, they also make lodges in banks, with under water entrances, especially along rivers where the water is deep enough for them to swim under water/ice. The water level in the Rouge in the park varies throughout the year and I do not know whether it sufficiently deep to meet beaver needs. This is what it looked like on my last visit in the area where the beaver had cut trees.

If they stay here, my guess is that they will be “bank beaver,” but one of the things I will be watching to see is whether they act to raise the water level, perhaps by using a current logjam as the start of a dam.

Beaver are able to change the environment in which they live and this has sometimes led to them being considered by some as a nuisance or a pest (for example, when their dams lead to flooded roads). Their overall impact on ecosystems and on sustainability has, however, been viewed by most researchers as very positive, as evidenced in a widely-endorsed, and very readable, book published last year.

I will also be looking for additional signs of their presence and of their behavior. So far I have not seen clear tracks in the mud, perhaps because most of the mud along the river is currently covered with leaves. The hind track (webbed) is reported to be about 6 inches long and the front about 3 inches. These drawings are from The Peterson Guide to Animal Tracks.

I cannot say definitely that beaver have taken up residence in Eliza Howell Park, but I will now have a different answer when asked whether any beaver live here.

I have been saying “not yet,” hoping that they would show up one of these years. Now I can say “there are definite signs; let me show you.” Perhaps soon I will be able to give an unqualified “yes.”

The River, the Season, the Weather: Tracking Fall 2019

I often stop on the footbridge during my walks in Eliza Howell Park, stop and take a picture, looking upstream the Main branch of the Rouge River. These pictures help me track seasonal changes and fluctuations in water level.

Below are 8 photos taken on different days during the four weeks from October 16 to November 13, 2019. Some from sunny days and some from cloudy days, these pictures presdent the progress of Fall this year.

October 16, 2019  (9:47 a.m.   Approximately 50 degrees F)

October 20, 2019 (3:04 p.m.   Approximately 60 degrees F)

October 24, 2019  (11:23 a.m.  Approximately 50 degrees F)

October 27, 2019   (11:57 a.m.  Approximately 45 degrees F)

November 1, 2019   (9:31 a.m.   Approximately 35 degrees F)

November 4, 2019   (10:22 a.m.   Approximately 45 degrees F)

November 8, 2019   (10:07 a.m.   Approximately 25 degrees F)

November 13, 2019   (10:52 a.m.   Approximately 15 degrees)

The changes from the middle of October to the middle of November, always dramatic along the river in Eliza Howell Park, were even more dramatic this year because of the unusually heavy snow of November 11.