Dear Eddy,
While paddling, I commonly see ducks that have reddish crested heads and buff-colored bodies. In the spring, one mother may have as many as 25 ducklings with her. How can she tend to so many?
Thanks,
Concerned
Dear Concerned,
Your fine feathered friends that have you so flustered are female common mergansers, Mergus merganser. The reason you see one female with so many ducklings is that the mothers share babysitting duties so they can cavort in the waves or sit at the bar. The ducklings usually share a nest in a tree cavity, such as an abandoned woodpecker hole, with 6-17 siblings. When they are old enough, they dive underwater to feed on fish and insects. Juveniles and females look similar but mature males have green heads, white breasts and black backs. They are easily confused with male mallards but their slender, reddish, serrated bills and diving behavior set them apart. Mergs are common across the U.S. and Canada and are found year-round here.
The other diving ducks that you may encounter at your favorite play spot in the spring are the anadramous, paint-by-number, brown and white harlequin ducks, Histrionicus histrionicus. Usually, they are found playing in heavy surf at the coast, but like steelhead, they head upstream to produce their young. The pair builds a grass-lined nest among the boulders or under streamside brush. The colorful male then returns to the sea, leaving the female, camouflaged in dark brown with three white patches on her head, to brood and raise her chicks alone. When the chicks are old enough, they spend the rest of the summer on a float trip, drifting slowly downriver to reach the ocean by winter.
Dear Eddy,
Do dippers head south for the winter?
No, but these small wren-like grey birds, seen splashing around the rivers edge, do seek out unfrozen water. They tend to stay in their home streams but move to lower elevations to avoid ice in winter. This isn't a problem for birds living in Panama, but the ice gets pretty thick at the northern limit of their distribution, north central Alaska. This generally solitary bird always lives near water and actually prefers foaming whitewater. It has adapted for its underwater habits by developing nasal flaps which are closed when underwater, an enlarged preen gland for supplying oil to waterproof its plumage, and a warm protective layer of down. These birds, which can stay underwater for 30 seconds, not only walk on the bottom in search of aquatic insects, snails, and fish fry, but also can fly underwater. Unlike most birds, the males and females look alike. The female builds her nest of mosses and grasses near the water, sometimes within the spray zone of a waterfall. This globular mass, with an arched entrance on the side, may house two broods a year. Three to six chicks hatch after a 16 day incubation period and remain in the nest for another 2 to 3 weeks. The spotted breasts of the juveniles reveal the family's kinship to thrushes.
Dear Eddy,
I often see a grayish, robin-sized bird flying in front of me on the river. It makes quite a racket as it flies away. Do you know what it is?
Thanks,
Aeolus
Dear Aeolus,
The chatterbox youÕve been seeing is the piscivorous, cross-dressing, sentinel of the lotic highway, known as the belted kingfisher. This blue-grey bird, Ceryle alcyon, has a white collar and belly and a disproportionately large bill and crested head. Both sexes have a grey chest band, but the female is the flashy dresser of the pair as she sports an additional rufous-colored chest band. For most birds, it is the male that dresses in glorious colors, but this is one of the rare exceptions.
The belted kingfisher is generally solitary. The male alerts you that youÕve drifted into his territory with his characteristic rattling sounds. He will often lead you out of his fishing grounds, scolding you along the way before he heads back upstream. In flight, he may go so low that his wingtips dip into the waterÕs surface or he may hover 50' over the water searching for small fish. When a kingfisher finds a suitable snack, he will dive into the water, capture it in its bill and fly up to a branch. The prey is then stunned by whacking its head against the branch, flung into the air, caught head first, and swallowed. Usually, finger-sized fish are taken, but sometimes a fish as long as the bird, is taken and swallowed, leaving an inch or two of the tail sticking into the air. Young trout are sometime taken, but chub and sculpin are the preferred foods, which, in themselves, are destructive to trout. Kingfishers have been know to wreck havoc on fish hatcheries and paid for it with their lives. When fish are scarce, they will feed on crustaceans, herptiles, insects, mice and berries.
During mating season, the male woos the smartly dressed female with mewing songs. After mating, the couple digs a 3' to 15' long tunnel into a steep walled bank of clay or sand, which may or may not be near the water. At the end of the tunnel, they dig a round domed nesting cavity. Occasionally, they share the tunnel with swallows, who construct their own little side bungalos. The female lays 6-8 eggs on a nice nest of sand or regurgitated fish bones. The parents share incubating duties for 24 days before the naked, helpless chicks hatch. After four weeks, they fly out. They remain as a family with the parents caring for the young until the adults refuse to feed them anymore. The young are forced to feed themselves, and the shortly thereafter, they each go their own way.
The kingfisher family owes its existence to the greek gods. Alcyone, (the ÔspecificÕ name of the belted kingfisher) was so distraught when her husband drowned in a shipwreck, that she threw herself into the sea. The pitying gods transformed the lovers into kingfishers, who roamed the water side by side. When they rested on the open ocean, the waves calmed and the weather was fine. These are still called the halcyon days.
Dear Eddy,
Sometimes, while lazily drifting thru riffles in old growth forests, I catch sight of what appears to be a small dark treefrog hanging out under water. I thought frogs lounged in lazy ponds or at least in the frog-water between drops.
Thanks,
Rana Ribbitt
Dear Rana,
Your conception of frog water needs to be redefined. What you saw, was in all likelihood, the tailed frog, Ascaphus truei. This two inch long, little bum bumper likes to hang out in pristine streams and canÕt handle the increased siltation or temperature often associated with logging. During the day, it rests underwater in riffles, while at night it hops along shore in search of insects, invertebrates and festivities. The ÒtailÓ is used for more than a spare hat rack. It is actually an intromittent organ involved in amplexus. Only the males have this erectile extension which is designed to conserve the family jewels in swift water. With all this fine machinery, one would expect it to be a highly evolved species, but in fact, it is one of the most primitive frogs around, past or present. Its nearest relatives actually live in New Zealand! Here in the PNW, it ranges from the Rockies of Montana to the coastal forests of Northern California and north into British Columbia. Like most of us, it is often found in the cold, torrential, boulder-strewn streams of coniferous forests. These frogs hold the world record for the lowest temperature requirement of any frog, 41oF.
They also hold the record for longest developmental period for frogs. Every other fall, the female lays 50 eggs in long string-like beads on the underside of a rock. After 9 months, the eggs hatch into tadpoles. The tadpolesÕ sucking disk that surrounds its mouth, enable them to hold onto rocks in swift current while scraping off the algal slime. They suck on rocks for four years before metamorphosing into juvenile frogs. Seven to eight years later, they reach sexual maturity. In all, they may live for 15-20 years. These individuals are fairly true to their home site and have little tendency to move out of the area. This frog is officially listed as a sensitive species. The next time you see tadpoles in your favorite swift, icy stream, let your local ranger know.