1) It's common for duckling families to get mixed up or combined. After all, the parents don't feed the young, the mothers mainly guide them to feeding and sheltering areas and warn them of danger. Any mother duck can do that, even a different species. In some species several females seem to deliberately combine their broods into what is called a creche. And I think sometimes a female will deliberately recruit another female's young, although sometimes a stray youngster will also be rejected. I don't know why. So, yes, your group of 32 youngsters likely has multiple mothers. By the way, some ducks are also known for laying some eggs in other females' nests, not necessarily of the same species. So a female may even start out with more than her own brood in tow.
2) I have heard of Bald Eagles or Ospreys accidentally dropping a fish on land, but not retrieving it. Yes Bald Eagles eat carrion, including fish, but I think the choice is highly influenced by laziness. Is it really easy to just fly out, rake your feet in the water and grab fresh food? Probably yes, for that adult. But maybe if you're a youngster and not very good at hunting, the easiest way to get fed is to dig into a washed up carcass. 3) I don't know if Turkey Vultures would be curious about a zucchini, but I doubt they'd mistake it for carrion. I think the term "kettle" refers to a group of raptors circling to gether in a thermal because of the similarity to the boiling motion of water. Corrections welcome. --Dave Nutter On Jul 26, 2014, at 01:09 PM, John Dennis <johnvden...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 23 July while kayaking on Cayuga Lake, my bird sightings included a Bald > Eagle, several ospreys, some double-breasted cormorants, a kettle of TVs > perched at the waters edge, and what appeared to be a single adult female > Common Merganser with a brood of 32 chicks in tow. One disadvantage of solo > birding is there is no one available to answer simple questions such as: > > 1) According to allaboutbirds.org, Common Merganser clutch size is "6-17 > eggs". Are Common Merganser females known to combine broods and "work in > shifts"? > > 2) Would a Bald Eagle that is disturbed during breakfast and drops its fish > from a tree and flies off, come back later to continue its meal? (I see at > www.baldeagleinfo.com/ that they also eat carrion, so I suppose coming back > to retrieve a recently caught fish would not be an indignity.) > > 3) Would a kettle of Turkey Vultures be intrigued by a large zucchini bobbing > in the lake water a few feet from shore, wondering (from a distance at least) > if perhaps if it was a dead animal? (And does "kettle" refer only to the > airborne formation of TVs or can it also be used to describe a group of TVs > that is perching? > > Apologies for such simple questions, John > > P.S. At the risk of being long-winded, here are a few more details regarding > the location and details of my sightings: > > I departed from Myers Point at about 7:30am, went a bit north of Atwater, > crossed over and kayaked down the west shore until Taughannock Park where I > followed a heading directly back to Myers Point, arriving there about 4pm. > There was a mild tail wind going north and a dramatic tailwind from abreast > of Milliken Station all the way back to Myers Point. > > On the northerly, east coast leg of the journey, I spotted a Bald Eagle > perched in a tree perhaps 1.5 miles north of Myers Point. I watched it fly > out over the lake and dive close to the water and then circle back to the > same tree. Having never seen a Bald Eagle fishing before, I assumed it had > missed its target when I saw no spray come up at the end of its dive. By > that time I had my bins on the bird, but movement of the kayak prevented me > from seeing it well. Only when it was back perched in a tree and later > dropped its fish upon my approach did I realize it had caught one. > > Rounding a point about half a mile south of Milliken Station, I was startled > as a TV look wing from about the water level and landed in a tree where two > or three other TVs were perched. I believe there was at least one more > circling overhead. On reaching a willow tree that was partly in the water > and where it seemed the TV had departed from, I found no carrion that could > have been of interest to the TVs, but there was a 16" long, 4" diameter > zucchini that was bobbing in the water a few feet from shore. There were a > couple of half-inch nicks in the skin of the zucchini, but none seemed deep > enough to been the result of TV beak-work. > > As I recall the larger Merganser brood was between Cuddeback Point on the > Bell Station parcel and the Atwater/Nut Ridge Road area. > > > Cell: 1-607-227-5172 -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
