Ex-hurricane Danny: Weather for ducks

What's down the road?
"OK, boys, we're outta here. Let's check things out down the road." E. Sepulchre photo

These intrepid ducks were not at all shy as my husband herded them out of the garden and back down the road. I bet they’re happy now: it’s pouring rain. Danny was briefly a hurricane but is down to a post-tropical storm that will pass south of Nova Scotia on a similar path to Hurricane Bill. After a beautifully sunny, but cool, week, the gardens will love the rain. But weekend campers are out of luck this time.

It seems to have been a bumper year for ducks.  Near our place, we’re blessed with lots of natural shoreline where they can build nests.  Elsewhere, and where people have the money, they build walls of boulders at the high tide line to shore up their lawns and act as a buffer against erosion.  But those neat and tidy rock walls are bad news for nesting shorebirds.

Ducklings!

10 little ducks and their mother on a pond near Oak Island causeway on May 27th, 2009
10 little ducks and their mother on a pond near Oak Island causeway on May 27th, 2009
Spotted on May 27: Ten downy ducklings under the watchful eye of their American Black Duck mother.

Blue-winged teal

Perched on a rock at high tide, a female blue-winged teal
Perched on a rock at high tide, a female blue-winged teal

Another duck in our local collection, alongside American black ducks, mallards and buffleheads. I wouldn’t ordinarily get such a photo, but there was a bush between us and the duck was preoccupied, I suppose. The tide was very high, flooding the marshes. It’s duck country.

Ice leaves, buffleheads take over

The ice that yesterday filled the cove has floated out to sea.
The ice that yesterday filled the cove has floated out to sea. The Oak Island Inn (which is not on Oak Island, but overlooks it) is in the distance.
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As soon as the ice had melted, the bufflehead ducks that had all winter occupied the other side of the causeway, the side that didn't freeze, gleefully (I imagine) took possession of the newly open water.

Feeding mallard ducks in Mahone Bay

A friend has been feeding ducks in his backyard in the town of Mahone Bay.

The females have a sweet, gentle way about them, my friend observes, while the males are more raucous.
The females have a sweet, gentle way about them, my friend observes, while the males are more raucous.
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Ducks come by for a meal
2009-03-10duck
Orange feet

Mystery tracks on the ocean ice

Mystery prints. Looks like 4 paws, then 4 paws, then something dragged for a distance, repeat.
Mystery prints

I saw these on the ice the other day.  What do you think it is?  It looks like 4 dog paws, then another set of 4 paws, then something dragged for a distance, repeat.  Leave comments below.

Seagulls or ducks?  The waddle suggests ducks to me. Pretty.
Seagulls or ducks?

And these?  Looks like ducks to me; I can imagine the waddle, and there are lots of ducks right here when the water is liquid.

Ducks eating on marsh at high tide

What are the ducks eating?
What are the ducks eating?

I wonder what the ducks are finding to eat in the flooded marsh? At high tide, a dozen of them will be gathered around one spot, head and neck down in the ooze.  Is it some small semi terrestrial creature that gets flooded out when the tide is so high?  Does anyone know?

Ducks

Pair of bufflehead ducks
Pair of bufflehead ducks

On my walk this morning, I saw no fewer than three species of duck in the little inlet taking shelter from the gale force southeasterlies: the American Black Ducks that breed prolifically around here, Mallards, and a pair of cute little Buffleheads.