Getting your ducks in a row

Upper Peninsula ducks offer beauty, variety and entertainment

By Scot Stewart

“Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow.”

— Chinese proverb

Two thousand ducks visited Marquette in March — all on the same day. Hundreds more stopped on Keweenaw Bay two days later. No one could remember ever seeing that many in Marquette. Ducks do make up an extremely interesting, entertaining and beautiful group of birds.

The Upper Peninsula is an intriguing place for ducks because of the cold temperatures of Lake Superior. For most ducks, it becomes more of a barrier than a resource because of the wind and weather conditions it helps create, and most ducks visiting the area are quick to cross the big lake. When the weather complicates the migration plans of ducks headed to Canada and Alaska for the summer, large flocks can drop into large, sheltered bays and lakes to wait out unfavorable conditions before heading on to their summer ranges. Those conditions have definitely been an issue this year.

Ducks can be sorted into four main groups: dabblers, divers, perching ducks and whistling ducks. Dabblers and divers are the ones most commonly found in the U.P., and most species are commonly seen only during migration. Dabblers prefer ponds and the shallows of lakes, where they feed on vegetation and invertebrates near or on the bottom of the water. Mallards are the most common dabblers found in northern Michigan. Divers rely on fish and lake-bottom invertebrates like crustaceans and mollusks. Some of them do well in Lake Superior and some of the larger lakes.

Perching ducks have strong claws that allow them to sit high in trees and nest there too. The wood duck, one of the most colorful of all the ducks, is the only species representing this group that is found here. The last group, the whistling ducks, includes two species found in the southern United States: the black-bellied and the fulvous whistling ducks found in the Deep South and along the ocean coasts.

“The squeaky wheel gets the grease, but the quacking duck gets shot.”

— Carl Sandburg

There are 29 species of native ducks in the United States. Worldwide, at least 167 were known, but some, like the Labrador duck, are extinct. Ducks and duck eggs have been a part of human diets for thousands of years, and as hunters’ weapons have been perfected, the efficiency at shooting ducks has left the numbers of many, like the American black duck and the wood duck, quite low in the States.

Because of the alarming losses of ducks, a dramatic program, the Federal Duck Stamp — originally known as the Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp — was set in place in 1934 by Franklin Roosevelt to provide funds to purchase, preserve and manage lands for water- fowl. Seney National Wildlife Refuge is a great example of the kind of place the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service developed to help waterfowl. Following forest fires and attempts to convert the area for farming by draining the Stangmore swamp, Civilian Conservation Corps workers began to create pools for Canada geese and other waterfowl.

In 1936, 300 Canada geese were brought to the refuge and kept in a penned area to nest. Their wings were then managed to prevent the birds from flying off. Although it took 10 years, the remnants of that group finally succeeded in producing young that returned the following spring in migration. Today the refuge is home to nesting geese, common loons, trumpeter swans (introduced there in the 1990s), ring-necked ducks, wood ducks, blue-winged teals, mallards, American black ducks, common goldeneyes and hooded and common mergansers. More than 50 other waterbirds either nest on or visit the refuge.

“Like a duck on the pond. On the surface, everything looks calm, but beneath the water, those little feet are churning a mile a minute.”

— Gene Hackman

crease duck numbers.

Because ducks were relatively easy to domesticate, a number of them are now farmed. This reality has created some confusion as a number of them have gone feral, and some have hybridized with wild ducks creating interesting cross-breeds as well as difficulties to identify individuals in the wild. Wild duck species also occasionally cross-breed, making the identification of some ducks a class in ornithology. There are more than 400 hybrids, with mallards and wood ducks leading the way, each with a large number of “successful hook-up” results. Images and information about some of the crosses can be found at several sites, including these: ducks.org/ conservation/waterfowl-research-science/waterfowl-hybrids; hybridduck. blogspot.com/p/hybrid-gallery.html; and dreamstime.com/photos-images/ hybrid-ducks.html.

Habitat

loss has also had a major impact on duck numbers worldwide. Dabblers in particular have taken a dive (no pun intended) because of changes to their nesting areas. Many nesting areas have disappeared in the Pothole country of the prairie states and provinces in the central part of North America as farming areas have expanded. Conversion of this land has reduced the areas available for nesting and cut into reproduction. Today, work by organizations that promote duck hunting has, ironically, done much to restore this habitat and in-

At least two domesticated ducks, Muscovy and Pekin, have made it to the Upper Peninsula in recent years. Exotic ducks like the mandarin duck are often kept by collectors, and there are places in the Midwest where they can be purchased for home ponds. They also escape into the wild on occasion. Several years ago, a gorgeous mandarin duck made it to Central Park in New York, where it became a popular attraction for both birders and nature lovers.

Occasionally a vagrant, such as Eurasian wigeon, will also migrate through the Upper Peninsula, creating a real stir among birders. This duck appears only occasionally, not every year here, and often sends birders to its location to get their first look at this species from Asia and Africa.

“When the ducks are walking, you know it’s too windy to play golf.” golf.”

— Dave Stockton

Ducks are one of the most easily recognized of all the bird groups. Their shorter necks usually make it easy to separate them from geese and of course swans, their close relatives. Nearly every city park with a pond in the United States has mallards living there in the summer. They have adapted extremely well to live close to humans. It actually seems a bit unfortunate they are so common, as most people take them for granted. But they are spectacularly beautiful, males with their metallic, emerald heads, mottled flanks and blue speculum.

The speculum is a portion of a duck’s wing where the shorter flight feathers, the secondaries, are located. It is most prominent in puddle ducks, like mallards, American black ducks, wood ducks, northern pintails and the teals. In those species, the speculums are brightly colored, often iridescent green or blue. The colors are not pigments but a layer of keratin and a crisscross hexagonal pattern of cellular structures that make and store melanin pigments. This layer interacts with light to create different iridescent colors. When a duck stretches, the colors of the speculums of the two wings can appear to be different shades because of the angle of the light striking the wings.

Mallards and similar species are one of the reasons the number of recognized species of ducks may occasionally change. In the southern United States, there are two other similar species of ducks, mottled and Mexican. Both species resemble female mallards. In 1983, ornithologists lumped two species into one, identifying the Mexican duck as a subspecies of mallard. Just three years ago, they were split again after further genetic studies identified significant differences.

Many of the dabbler’s nest in the central region of the country. For the most part, they winter in the southwestern United States and most follow the Central Flyway to the Pothole region of Nebraska, the Dakotas and central Canada, their summer ranges. This is one of four pathways ducks take when they migrate north and south each year. The Atlantic and Pacific Flyways are used by ducks spending the winters off the southern coasts. These are mostly divers headed back to Alaska and northern Canada. Dabblers wintering in California and the southwest also use it. The Mississippi Flyway is used by ducks wintering in the Deep South — Louisiana, Arkansas and the surrounding areas — to move to the Pothole country.

Mallards are the primary dabblers spending the entire year in the Marquette area. They taxi between the Dead and Chocolay rivers, where there are several feeder stations and relatively rich waters to feed, and Lake Superior, where there is some food on the surface and more security from predators. The mallard population in town has risen steadily over the past 20 years to more than 800 in the wintertime. In April, the pairs begin to head out into surrounding wetlands to nest. Some nest near the Lower Harbor breakwater and can be followed after they hatch and head to the area around the Coast Guard Station. Losses to mink and other predators take their toll and can be seen as the broods slowly dwindle. Some hens may actually re-nest. Some tiny ducklings can usually be found late in the summer and even into the early fall there.

The large flocks of wintering mallards may also hold a few other dabblers stuck here for whatever reasons. American wigeons, green-winged teals, northern pintails, canvasbacks, wood ducks and American black ducks can be found in those big congregations. A few divers, common goldeneyes and mergansers are also among the groups some days.

During the wintertime, one of the best places to watch ducks is the north end of Granite Street where it ends near the river, above Tourist Park. It is a long stretch of fairly wide, slow-moving water with a good ice shelf on both sides of the river in some places for them to rest and preen and a number of places where food is available.

In springtime, during migration, some dabblers do stop off, a bit off course from the Mississippi Flyway. In the last few years more American wigeons, northern shovelers and blue- winged teals have shown up in Marquette. They may be seen in some of the smaller ponds and wider spots on the Dead River. As the lakes begin to open up in the warmer weather, the ducks all tend to spread out more, and the nesters begin to look for spots to begin settling in.

The divers in the U.P. spend most of their time on the Great Lakes, where there is open water. Cold winters pinch in the places they can go. While the power plants operated on the shore in Marquette, their warm water releases provided open waters for them. Now that the plants are gone, the ducks have headed more often to the open waters of the Chocolay and Dead rivers, and to the open stretches of the creeks that run partway underground through Marquette where they can warm enough to stay open when they emerge again near Lake Superior.

Some, like the common goldeneyes and common mergansers, can spend the entire year here. Buffleheads, ring-necked ducks and hooded and red-breasted mergansers head farther south where there is more open water for winter but do nest here. Longtailed ducks, redheads and greater and lesser scaup are part of the divers most frequently seen in the U.P. during migration. Most will head farther west and into Canada, but the greater scaup will head to the High Arctic of Canada and Alaska.

One of the best species of divers that wanders into the U.P. is the harlequin duck. Divers most often seen on the rapids of streams out west, they occasionally land in Marquette. Two young males were found in the Low- er Harbor several years ago and spent several days feeding on mollusks and crustaceans on the lake bottom. Another spent more than a week on the rapids of the Carp River near the prison around three years ago.

Eiders also drop in occasionally, one several years ago in Marquette, but more often on the St. Marys River in Sault Ste. Marie. Long-tailed ducks are among the coolest-looking males, with nearly foot-long tail feathers. They can dive up to 200 feet down for mollusks on the lake floor and spend long stretches of time in the Lower Harbor of Marquette staying as long as there is open water. One other group of divers, the scoters, is among the most difficult to watch. They rarely stop in the U.P. during spring migration and usually stop in ones and twos in autumn, usually in the Lower Harbor. All are mostly black; they are also tough to tell apart.

“Poetry is a sky dark with a wildduck migration.”

— Carl Sandburg

The great flocks found on Lake Superior in Marquette and Keweenaw Bay in late March were a mixture of dabblers and divers. The largest group in Marquette numbered around 1,800, stretched from Picnic Rocks to Lambros Park and amazed all who were lucky enough to see them. All but around 70 were gone by morning. They may have sensed the approaching lower-pressure system and left to avoid the ensuing storm.

An earlier group of around 300 in Marquette left a bit at a time over the course of several days. The last 20 or so headed into the area around the Upper Harbor marina and consisted of lesser scaup, ring-necked ducks and a female bufflehead. They were joined on occasion by a pair of female ruddy ducks that had landed there more than a week before. Because their favorite feeding area was only 15 feet from shore, they were a joy to watch right from the boat landing parking lot. They would often dive separately and resurface nearly all at once in a tight group. The scaup drakes were particularly interesting to watch, as they kept track of their apparent mates and prepared to dive. A slightly raised set of feathers on the top of their heads flattened just before each dive. It seemed their dives were usually successful in finding food, but the identity of their meals was not easy to discern.

Courtship rituals among the ducks are often quite entertaining too. The mallard males bunch up when they are still looking for a mate and will crowd a female. At an unseen signal, all will raise their heads and then their tails in unison in a move called “heads up tails up.” Once they have found a mate, they begin mutual head bobs to confirm their mutual attraction.

Common goldeneyes exhibit a lot of courting in late winter when they are often in large groups on Lake Superior as new pairings are determined. Males will jerk their heads back in a strong exaggerated fashion and let out single creaky calls followed by a quick kick, throwing water behind them. Merganser males lean their heads forward and stretch their necks toward females in a “salute-curtsy.”

Ducks in the U.P. usually nest alone on the ground. Females lay a single egg each day until their nests are full, then begin incubation so all hatch within the same day or so. That way they can all head to open water together. Wood ducks and hooded mergansers nest in tree hollows, like ones pileated woodpeckers would excavate, making it necessary for young to jump to the ground shortly after they hatch. It can be a more than 12foot jump. The high nests help them avoid predators like foxes, raccoons and skunks, and the jump, often into leaf piles, does not seem to faze the young.

There are plenty of animals ready

National Wildlife Refuge, northern pike, snapping turtles, bald eagles and mink all take their toll on the young broods. As they take flight, peregrines become a prime enemy.

During the late summer molt, some, like wood ducks and many dabblers, experience an eclipse phase where they lose most of their colorful body feathers, then their old primary flight feathers, leaving them flightless. They must swim quickly into cover if danger approaches. They may remain unable to fly for a month. The new body feathers are drab, leaving them more camouflaged. In October, once all their flight feathers have grown in, they molt their body feathers again and males take on their bright breeding colors once more.

“Popularity should be no scale for the election of politicians. If it would depend on popularity, Donald Duck and The Muppets would take seats in the Senate.”

— Orson Welles

The appearance of ducks has led to more than identification issues. Appearances, the short legs, the waddling and sometimes chubby aspects have also brought a whiff of mirth. A study done in Great Britain in 2002 led by Richard Wiseman at the University of Hertfordshire found that some of the greatest humor arising from animals concerned the duck.

A duck walks into a drugstore and asks for a tube of ChapStick. The clerk asks how the duck will pay for it. The duck instructs the clerk to “put it on my bill.” The duck was a wise quacker. He also had a lot of things to fix at the nest, so he tried to buy a roll of duck (duct) tape. Ducks have had plenty of places to be heard and seen — as Daffy and Donald and even as Howard the Duck in a 1986 movie. So, duck if you don’t want to get hit by the next joke. It might quack you up. Until then, enjoy the beauty, behavior and joy of the sounds, colors and activity of these aquatic neighbors.

MM

Scot Stewart has lived in Marquette long enough to be considered a true Yooper even though he was born in Illinois. He is a teacher and loves to be outdoors photographing and enjoying nature.