Wild About the City » Exploring nature in the urban environment

Well, here’s a bit of a conundrum.

Seems the Ashbridge’s Bay mallard hens had a meeting, took a show of webbed feet, and voted to have their broods hatch at the end of July, instead of their usual hatching time, in early June.

Or not.

Could it be that our bay mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) are all having a second brood?

I did a bit of research on this topic and quickly found that it is considered rare (although documented to have happened at least several times) for mallard hens to have a second brood in one nesting season. It can happen if the first nest fails. But it seems preposterous to think that such a rare event could be responsible for the numerous new families of mallards that have suddenly appeared in our bay.

The more likely answer, it seems to me, is that for some reason — almost certainly environmental — all our female mallards were delayed in their nesting, egg laying and hence hatching times. It sounds crazy, especially considering the unusually hot May we experienced. But what else could explain this newly arrived crop of little mallard fluffballs?

Perhaps if someone — a biologist out there, maybe? — knows the explanation for this, they could let me know. Even a theory?

Today was actually my second time seeing — and trying to photograph — these little yellow and brown babies. Yesterday’s outing resulted in a goose egg’s worth of usable images. Seems I inadvertently had my little point-and-shoot camera on an ISO setting of 800. Oops! The images were so grainy it looked like I had shot them all from the inside of a silo. Oh dear.

Things went a little better today, but — wouldn’t  you know it? — the day I go down to the Beach without my long lens is the day I get a clear look at the belted kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) I frequently play hide and seek with. As usual, I heard the kingfisher before I saw it. It has a very distinctive loud rattle that sounds almost like the chitter of an annoyed red squirrel. If  you want to hear what a kingfisher sounds like, click here.   (Thanks Cornell Lab.)

Once I located the kingfisher (a female as it turns out) perched on a branch overhanging the inlet, I realized it had its big black eyes fixed on the little ducklings that were out paddling with their mother. Looked to me like the kingfisher was sizing up the ducklings as a possible entree for a late lunch.

I asked a fellow nature enthusiast I met along the trail what she thought, and she offered the opinion that the ducklings were likely too big to be of interest to the kingfisher for a meal.

But here’s what the U.S. national parks service has to say about the kingfisher’s diet:

“Fish are the favorite food of the Belted Kingfisher! Spotting from their perches or hovering over water, these birds catch prey by plunging after it headfirst into the water. They also take aquatic organisms, reptiles, amphibians, insects, young birds, mice and occasionally berries. On the coast, they are known to feed on squid and oysters. Although prey may be large enough to fill the throat, rapiddigestion allows food to slowly move down the gullet. The young birds are fed a milky regurgitant. After fledging, the parents teach their perched young to fish by dropping dead meals into the water. Within ten days, young fledglings are catching live prey!”  (To read the rest of the NPS article, click here.)

Ack! Young birds! Who knew that the mallard mothers had to worry about the resident kingfishers, as wells as the mink that lives only a few metres away? (I haven’t seen the mink myself yet, but the same nature lover I was speaking with showed me where it lives.)

All around, it was a very exciting outing today.

In the fullness of summer, there is so much going on at the bay. I’ll have to try to get back there this week.

© BCP 2010