This is a season complete of life’s possibilities. Possibilities for wildlife, too.
Most apparent and noticeable of these are the lots of brand-new lives we’re seeing in the next generation of ducks, geese, grouse, songbirds and lots of other wild animals.
These young lives are the item of nature’s biggest seriousness — to replicate — next in significance just to getting food required to survive, and preventing ending up being food for among nature’s lots of predators.
On a lake near where I live, I’ve been enjoying the constant growing of a brood of young typical merganser ducks. A brood of 11 has actually handled to reach the half-grown phase.
This is not special, however this a great deal is rather an achievement when you think about the lots of threats young ducklings deal with from both under the water and above it.
Many duck broods do not even begin life this big, not to mention reach this state of maturity in this a great deal. To what degree this is because of good mothering, or to best of luck, is tough to state.
Perhaps both, since I’ve never ever seen this brood without seeing their mom close at hand, and constantly in a posture of awareness.
As with many types of waterfowl, their dad has actually run out the image considering that courtship, leaving the hen to perform parenting responsibilities on her own.
One of the habits I’ve discovered most intriguing in this brood varies from lots of other duck types, and may puzzle somebody whose contact with ducks has actually been mainly with the plentiful mallards, wood ducks or teal.
Unless there is food on the water’s surface area, those more typical types “tip up” to feed, with their tail plumes in the air, and their neck extended undersea to probe for marine plants, shellfishes or marine pests.
These merganser children, nevertheless, consistently make splashy dashes throughout the shallow water’s surface area, typically ending in their partial submersion at the end of a rush. This is “minnowing,” the chasing of little fish simply under the surface area.
For these ducks, fish will be a pillar of their diet plan for the rest of their lives. For the very first number of weeks of life, a merganser hatchling is most likely to eat more easily catchable victim, like marine pests.
But beyond that, nature has actually equipped them to be effective anglers, providing narrow costs that bear rows of teeth-like serrations, which are perfect for grasping active, slippery victim.
I’ve seen this exact same feeding habits somewhere else, consisting of on the rivers of Lake Superior’s North Shore, where I have actually fished for the migratory rainbow trout referred to as steelhead.
At such times our own self-interest is apt to reveal itself. I remember questioning then whether the young mergansers were rounding up and catching young trout, instead of minnows, which in my greediness I may have frowned at.
In such situations we’d succeed to bear in mind that relationships amongst wildlife have actually progressed over countless years, and our desires — whether for sport, intake or both — do not constantly need to precede.
Several days ago, a friend emailed to say that, while out blueberry picking, his dog had flushed a family group of ruffed grouse. Three of the gangling youngsters landed close enough to him to be photographed.
This is not so surprising, when you keep in mind that young creatures of many species — even game bird species, like ruffed grouse — are quite naïve when very young.
Tim’s encounter reminded me of a similar encounter my wife and I had recently while biking, spotting a hen and five half-grown grouse chicks on the shoulder of the county road.
Presumably the birds were there to pick gravel as grit for their crops, something necessary as part of the digestive process, at least for their more fibrous foods.
Like the hen merganser and her ducklings, this hen was the only parent playing a role in the upbringing of these young grouse. The cock grouse’s parenting involvement began and ended with courtship and mating.
In contrast, the male Canada goose — gander, more properly — is considered a model of family devotion in the bird world. Canada geese typically pair for life, and only turn their attention to another mate if their partner dies.
The gander plays a protective role, while the female incubates their eggs. Geese, too, can be prolific, as evidenced by a brood we watched on the lake where our family cabin stands.
One morning we watched a pair of adults lead their 10 goslings — strung out in perfect linear order — into the shallows to feed.
With them was a mature but slightly smaller bird, which in all probability was an unmated yearling from last year’s brood that had remained attached to its parents through spring’s northward migration; further testament to the strength of their family ties.
Across the spectrum of bird life, mothers are constantly involved in rearing their young and “showing them the ropes” of survival. Dads’ involvements vary greatly.
In most northern nesting ducks, the male plays no role whatsoever in the rearing of ducklings. On the other hand, male geese and swans raise their young jointly with their mates.
So do loons, sandhill cranes and lots of hawk and owl types.
Like male ruffed grouse, the male pheasant, turkey, prairie chicken and sharptail grouse are not involved at all in brood rearing.
Songbirds, on the other hand, commonly exemplify shared parenting, including the ubiquitous robin, wrens, Baltimore orioles and many others.
Why wildlife types evolve as they do, with some acquiring such opposite approaches to the important business of raising offspring, is a mystery with an assortment of clues, however no outright responses.
