Ducks Going to Roost

Awhile back, I mentioned to Mike that a blue-morph snow goose had been seen out in the fields and ponds around Townville.  He asked if I wanted to go try to see it.  Silly question.  Of course I wanted to.  We left immediately because the sky still seemed fairly light, but it’s a good twenty-minute drive from where we live, and as we got out there we could tell that it was really too late to identify anything very well.

We could see well enough to tell that there were no geese out there except for two Canadas, which are common, and frankly not worth a trip out to view.  (Amazing how things change.  Thirty years ago seeing a Canada Goose would have been a big treat.  Not any more, now that they seem to be everywhere.)

 

But there were a lot of ducks on the pond where we were watching.  We couldn’t tell what kinds they were; we could only identify in the shadows that, yes, they were ducks.  So Mike suggested that we stay to watch them go to roost, since ducks rarely overnight at the same place where they spent the day.  Of course I again agreed.  

 

We waited about fifteen minutes, watching the darkening sky and the sixty or so ducks paddling around in the pond.  Not much was happening.  I thought that maybe this was a complete waste of time.

 

Then, all of a sudden, at some unseen signal, about thirty of them rose up at the exact same time.  They didn’t just leave the pond, but flew in a large circle toward the west.  Then they circled around, made a large loop, and flew together as one toward the east.  Mike said they were flying in a circle in order to gain altitude before heading to their destination: probably a roost in a nearby swamp.  

 

About five minutes later, another smaller group rose up and flew in the opposite direction, again circling the pond before leaving.  Then the final set flew, in a circle and toward the east, like the first group.  The sight of all those ducks flying in a spiral as one moving mass was beautiful against the last fading rays of light before complete nightfall.  

 

Who knows what is the trigger that makes a flock rise up and fly away to roost?  Mike suggested that maybe an alpha male makes a sound; however, we don't know for sure what it might be.  All we really know is that seeing all those ducks flying in unison toward their roosting spot was a beautiful example of the design in nature that we really don’t understand.