MOUNTAIN DUCKS

“Bushlore” by G.E.P. Wellard Published in 1983

Every year in late January or early February, pairs of Mountain ducks start to arrive at Yladgee, with the idea of reserving suitable nesting sites for the coming breeding season which will take place later on in the year. The ducks will not breed until after the first good winter rains fall which as a rule in this district is not until May or early June.

I think Mountain ducks may mate for life. If they do not, they have certainly paired before they arrive in January. The first thing they do on arrival is to pick what they think is a suitable farm dam to use as headquarters for the breeding season. When they have decided on the dam they lay claim to it and also to the feeding area around it and from then on will defend it against all intruders.
 

They prefer to nest in hollows in the limbs of trees. While they are waiting for the winter rains, they spend a lot of time looking for a suitable tree. The tree must be within reasonable distance of their selected dam, so that the ducklings when they leave the nest, will not have far to walk to water. If the ducks are lucky enough to find a tree complying with these conditions, they will claim it as their own and, as with the dam, will defend it against all comers. This first journey to the dam and its fresh water will probably be the most hazardous of their lives, so the shorter it is, the safer it will be. Until they reach the comparative safety of the water, where they can dive,

Which they can do at a very early age, they can run the risk of cats, foxes, hawks and kookaburras.

Wood ducks also nest in hollow trees, so nesting sites would be at a premium, if nature had not come to the rescue and decided that Wood ducks should nest a month later than Mountain ducks. This means when the Wood ducks are ready to nest, the Mountain ducks have already hatched out their young and so have finished with the hollows.

When these are hatched out, the hollows once more become available. The Wood ducks can now move in and start laying their eggs. By the time the Wood ducks have finished nesting it would be August, which is the time for the black cockatoos to arrive. I have noticed over many years they always arrive in the second week in August.

At first just a few scouts arrive soon to be followed by the main invasion. Then the Salmon Gum trees will have to put up with the day long raucous calls of the Cockatoos as they try to settle the claims being made for the best nesting hollows. All this just goes to show that nature is no fool when it comes to organising something.

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Copyright : Gordon Freegard 2023