Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Where have all the hen ducks gone? Long time passing

Please Enlarge view of the lonely drakes in the stream that flows downhill from N. Duncan Avenue and through the Beverly Manor apartment pond.
Joan Baez performs when will they ever learn, where have all the flowers gone
Mary Travers and the Kingston Trio perform WHERE have all the flowers gone

Mary Travers, Pete Seegers and the Kingston Trio perform WHERE have all the flowers gone
Pete Seeger sings with grandson

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Despite all your military/macho bully behavior we always knew you were just an old hippy!

Anonymous said...

He ain't the only old veteran who listens to that music and remembers what the world was like back in the day. And it is about the same today.

Jenn said...

Because of the concern for the health and safety of the ducks, Fayetteville Animal Services removed as many ducks (+one goose) as they could catch and took them to a new pond. I guess those drakes are the ones they couldn't catch--and they decided that they had a bit of water to be in, and they looked healthy, so they'll be all right. They hope to return the other resident ducks to the pond once everything gets cleared up and the pond is restored.

aubunique said...

I suspected something of that sort.
The drakes were already trying to fertilize the hens' eggs; and laying and nesting would have been occurring soon.
The ducks are pretty much hybridized and only one drake, the one that flew across the pond to inspect the backhoe/loader, appeared to be a pure mallard.
He probably flew a mile south to safer habitat where he was hatched a year ago.
There is a pair of wild mallards in south Fayetteville that have become year-round residents and succeed in reproducing every year.
Each winter, that pair of mallards separates from the growing flock of their progeny and prepare to nest in the same general area. Similarly, there is a pair of Canada geese that have been reproducing successfully in the same area for about six years. They had a group of 20-something descendants in winter 2007-08 in winter but pair off and claimed good nesting sites while the rest went off to mate and nest elsewhere, but not far away.
The difference between ducks and geese is legend. That Alpha drake might have numerous mating experiences in a lifetime. Geese are mostly lifetime partners.
But ducks also appear to grieve for mates lost during late-fall hunting season and in accidents.
Even though mallard drakes may philander, they do stick close to help protect their young with a chosen partner.
You'll have to read studies by waterfowl scientists to get better information My observations are only that, not based on research of significance. Please report as the situation develops.
Will the dredging and restoration process continue?
Did you notice that the workers were seeding the area with fescue, the most hated nonnative grass in
Arkansas?
Getting rid of fescue in old pastures is the first job of people trying to reestablish the area's native prairie land. Planting fescue in the our watershed ought to be outlawed. But people still buy it at the Co-op.
The educational efforts of the agricultural and wildlife experts seems never to reach everyone.

Anonymous said...

Maybe the drakes like other drakes more than they do hens, despite your narrow assumptions and heterocentric views about avian lifestyles.

Anonymous said...

The Alpha drake was mating with a hen a week ago. They are pals but they fight over the hens in late winter and spring.
Human beings have overpopulated and are destroying the habitat of every other living thing. Ducks and millions of other species have to struggle to reproduce and get by on whatever habitat remains that will support them.