The Daily Bucket is a regular feature of the Backyard Science group. It is a place to note of any observations you have made of the world around you. Rain, sun, wind...insects, birds, flowers...meteorites, rocks...seasonal changes...all are worthy additions to the bucket. Please let us know what is going on around you in a comment. Include, as close as is comfortable for you, where you are located. Each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the patterns that are quietly unwinding around us.
Salish Sea, Pacific Northwest
February 27, 2014
(All photos by me. In Lightbox...click to enlarge)
Buffleheads (Bucephala albeola) are my favorite ducks. I see these small sprightly diving ducks only in winter, where they gather in small flocks on my local quiet bays, fishing these shallow waters for crustaceans and mollusks. Quick short dives, popping up like corks, and in between often chasing each other and posturing. Other times they paddle calmly across the bay, although below the water their large webbed feet paddle vigorously. In the evening, all the ducks in a bay gather together and raft quietly near the shore.
Did I say small? Tiny! Little more than a foot long, and weighing about a pound, they are light enough to be able to fly almost directly up off the surface, unlike most diving ducks, who have to run across water water a ways getting up enough speed to lift off. Though smaller than most ducks, including their close relatives and major competitor, the Goldeneyes, their size is an advantage during nesting. In summer, they migrate north and inland to forested ponds, incubating their eggs in tree cavities, especially old Northern Flicker holes, which are too small for Goldeneyes to enter.
Buffleheads are abundant in winter but they are skittish, swimming away or flying off explosively at a moment's notice. It's hard to get good pictures of them, between their tiny size and shy behavior.
In sun, you can see the gloriously iridescent green and purple head plumage of the male Bufflehead above, with that characteristic big white patch. The females are grayish brown, with small white patches on their cheeks. Bufflehead pairs stay together for many breeding seasons. More detailed information about Buffleheads is here at Animal Diversity.
It's getting late in winter, and that's a bittersweet time for me, knowing the Buffleheads will soon be departing for the breeding season. Their northern ponds are thawing. It won't be long, and what I saw this day tells me the clock is ticking. I watched a pair of Buffleheads mating.
Here's what I saw (no video, sorry - I didn't know what I was watching until later). It was late afternoon on a cloudy day, shades of black and white and gray, but windless and mild. As usual, the Buffleheads were cruising the bay, variously foraging and paddling around, with the males intermittently charging each other.
Then, this...
One pair paddled off toward a corner of the bay. The female "Following" after the male, then he "Steaming" after her. These terms come from the article Display Behavior of Bufflehead, Scoters and Goldeneyes at Copulation, at JSTOR.
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Then she disappeared under him.
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After the act, there were two post-mating "Rotations". The male appears to be holding her lightly with his bill.
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All this took 12 seconds, according to the time stamps on the pics. Then they separate, and the male takes a "Plunge".
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Once he emerges, they paddle around together for a while, occasionally "Bathing."
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When other males approached, he chased them off, furiously flapping his wings.
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After a time, the two of them drifted off into the shade where I couldn't see them anymore. The bay was quiet, a few Scoters, Buffleheads and Loons on the flat calm water, last light of day through clouds.
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In 30 days, the female will lay her eggs in an old Flicker hole somewhere to the north. That means this pair will leave in a few weeks. The countdown has begun.
Here's a site with cool videos of a female checking out a nesting hole and chicks leaving a nest box, joining mom in the pond.
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