Ducks Going to Roost

About 6:15 last night I mentioned to Mike that a blue-morph snow goose had been seen out at the Dobbins Farm Ponds yesterday.  He asked if I wanted to go try to see it, and of course I said yes.  We left immediately because it still seemed fairly light, but as we got out there we could tell that it was really too late to identify anything very well.

We could tell at least that there were no geese out there (except for two Canadas), but there were a lot of ducks.  So Mike asked me if I wanted to stay to watch them go to roost, as ducks rarely overnight at the same place where they spent the day.  Of course I again said yes.  We waited about fifteen minutes, watching the darkening sky and the fifty or so ducks in the pond.  Then, at some unseen signal, about thirty of them rose up as one, flew in a large circle toward the west, then came back around and flew toward the east.  Mike said they were probably going to roost in a nearby swamp.  About five minutes later, another group rose up and flew in the opposite direction; then the final group flew, in a circle and toward the east, like the first one.

The sight was beautiful against the last rays of sunlight.  Who knows what the trigger is that makes a certain flock rise up and fly away to roost.  Mike said that maybe an alpha male makes a sound; however, he didn't know for sure what it might be.  It was a relaxing thing to watch on a day that had been stressful for us both.

Showdown Between a Cooper's Hawk and a Downy

This morning a Cooper's Hawk swooped in and cleared out all the activity at my feeders for quite awhile.  I watched him close up for about twenty minutes before it flew.

I came back out to the kitchen a few minutes later and looked again - it was back, at the top of a pruned crepe myrtle, looking out toward my driveway, patiently awaiting a meal.  On the near side of the crepe myrtle was a downy woodpecker that had been heading for the suet.  Apparently recognizing the dire situation it was in, the downy literally did not move a muscle for about fifteen minutes.

Finally, the Cooper's Hawk flew toward the house, landing on a wire plant support right outside my kitchen window.  And the downy disappeared.  At first I thought the Cooper's had gotten it, but the Cooper's didn't have anything in its talons.  Then I realized - at the first motion from the hawk toward the house, the downy instantly disappeared to the back side of the tree.  It happened so fast I didn't even see it move.  And when the Cooper's finally flew away, the downy finally got brave and got its breakfast at the suet feeder.

A fascinating interchange to watch.