We were walking at Stewart Park, and saw a Mallard couple making a fuss, circling around a lawn area and landing, then taking off and circling again, agitating and vocalizing.
We watched for awhile and then heard peeping near a tree. We assumed there was a duckling in the scrubby growth around the base of the tree somehow caught or injured, so we looked, but found nothing, and it began to dawn on us that the peeping was coming from up in the tree. I combed my overheated brain for an explanation, and it thought maybe a hawk or crow had made off with the duckling and then dropped it by chance into the crotch of a tree while being chased by another bird. Well, there was indeed a Mallard couple's duckling up in the tree, but it hadn't been dropped there by a predator. There were at least three other offspring, all in a nest about twenty feet up, which the female finally landed near and waddled onto, presumably after deciding we didn't pose an immediate threat. Then she flew down and circled the tree on foot, vocalizing. Suddenly, a duckling came tumbling out of the tree, bounced alarmingly high off the ground after it hit, rolled a little, and then got up and proceeded to follow mom back and forth in front of the tree as she vocalized to the rest of the brood. The tree rained ducklings at intervals until three were following her as she paced. She gave the fourth duckling extra time but couldn't persuade it, so she headed into the pond with the three ducklings she had managed to collect, and was joined there by the male. I'd never heard of Mallards nesting in trees before, but there they were. It seems they found a suitable solution to the problem of nesting in a park with lots of foot and dog traffic. Caroline Manring Ithaca -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
