Uncle Woody Explains It All!

For the past several years, young wood ducks have arrived at the Pond to learn from the master of masters of wood-duckieness: Woody, Prince of the Pond. They have learned how to squeak at the other ducks, chase the mallards with mouth wide open, evade the pecks of larger ducks, learn to coexist and survive with other duck species, and, most important, swim toward me when I call out "Woody! Woody! Woody!" so that they are sure to get lots of peanuts.

Uncle Woody and his student, Junior (or Nephew), Oct. 13, 2013

Woody, Oct. 24, 2016, at the Pond

Junior at the Pond, Oct. 21, 2016

The first week of October, a new student arrived at the Pond. I've been calling young male wood ducks who arrive at the Pond "Junior," since although they are all woodys, none of them can really be Woody! (Figure that one out.) And while this youngster is in town, I have decided to refer to Prince Woody as Uncle Woody! Sometimes I call the younger guy Nephew. He doesn't seem to mind.

I have created a new video to celebrate the mentorship of Woody and the mentoreeship of Junior 2016. How long will Junior stay at the Pond? One year, a student stayed all winter. Other years, the youngsters have disappeared during fall migration. The music for Uncle Woody! is Beethoven's second string quartet, in G, performed by the Pascal String Quartet.

Wood ducks are most often very shy and tend to hang out with other wood ducks. (Most recently, I saw at least eight wood ducks at Prospect Park, but they were all hanging out together on the other side of an island, and didn't want to be near people.) But Woody is one of a kind, and he has found his own way to survive in the universe. It is no wonder that other wood ducks might want to learn from him.

Could these youngsters be Woody's kids? It is certainly possible, but not likely. Wood ducks do not mate for life, but are instead "love 'em and leave 'em" guys. But Woody really seems to enjoy the kids' company, and, for a while, he seems to remember that he is the most wood-ducky of wood ducks, and not actually a mallard.

The first year I saw Woody interacting with other wood ducks, he seemed rather irritated to have the relatives in town. But the last couple of years he has seemed to really enjoy the visitors. When he leaves in the spring, it is usually with the pair of mallards he likes to hang out with in the summer. He comes back in the summer to molt, and I remember one year that other wood ducks joined the molting process. When new wood ducks appear, I always hope at least one will stay to learn from the Prince of the Pond.

I never get tired of watching Woody and seeing how he navigates the world and his own small portion of it.

Hunting at Bethesda Fountain

A squirrel was crying around 3:15 on Oct. 28 on the west path leading down to Bethesda Fountain. I had been looking for the two first-year red-tailed hawks we saw earlier this week, but despite the plaintive sounds from the squirrel, I couldn't find a hawk.

Around 5:15, we went in search of the kids again, and coming to the same tree, we found the squirrel a little lower, still very, very nervous. Going farther up the path, a red-tailed hawk, with a red tail, was spotted in a tree over Terrace Drive. The hawk took off for the tree on the west side of the balcony, and then flew down into the ivy after a rat.

A visiting young adult red-tailed hawk near Bethesda Fountain, Oct. 28, 2016

The youngster missed, then flew down toward the Lake. We found the hawk in a tree to the east of the fountain. We chased the hawk as it flew around, at one point going onto one of the decorated ornaments near the stairs.

When last seen, as the sun was going down, the hawk was on a tree on Cherry Hill, look very regal. When the raptor flew again, it was south, and we couldn't relocate the bird.

The young adult on Cherry Hill

The red tail tells us the hawk is an adult, the amber eyes a young one. At first we wondered if this was Fred or Sheep Meadow Papa, but after watching, we decided the bird is a visiting young adult. A delight, wherever the hawk came from.

The video shows the hawk throughout the evening, until we could no longer really see into the trees.

Diving in the Reservoir

Every time I see a ring-necked duck (Aythya collaris), I start to smile. This is one of the most delightful diving ducks around. Although the ring around the duck's neck is seldom seen, the stripe on the bill is always visible. Why isn't it called a ring-billed duck? I don't know, I didn't name them!

Ring-necked duck on the Reservoir, November 20, 2014

The latest Filming the Feathers video features the ring-necked ducks I've seen since 2013. It is set to Mozart. I think all the videos were taken at the Reservoir.

You can get a sense of the ring-necked duck's size next to this Canada goose. These ducks often hang out with the dabblers, and I've frequently seen them swimming with the mallards. They eat aquatic plants, including seeds, roots, and stems, as well as insects and mollusks. In the video, you'll see one ring-necked trying to eat a large acorn, dropping it, picking it up and dropping it again.

Ring-necked duck and Canada goose, January 19, 2016

These photos are from 2014, 2015 and January 2016. I hope I get to see more ring-neckeds as the ducks fly through this November.