Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Ghostly little duck was just in time for Halloween

Marketplace \| Services \| Contact Us \| Community \| Arts & Entertainment \| Local Guides

Tuesday, November 9, 1999

Ghostly little duck was just in time for Halloween
Ruddy ducks, a flock of which half-albino bird was a part, able to sink in water like submarines

The weather was glorious as we set forth in late afternoon for Padre Isles, where good things are often found. It seems that birds have not heard about the suburban look that neighborhood has taken on. Maybe they were just migrating, found themselves near a place they once knew as wild, and it was too late to make other plans.
   Lila Vaughan had called to tell me of a partially albino ruddy duck. On the day before Halloween it seemed appropriate. Although the little white ones are beautiful, there is something eerie about them. Some people compare them to angels. They could be ghosts.
   To find the ruddy, we made our way to a pond on the Padre Isles Golf Course, where the little duck had been seen by many observers.
   We crept along at birding speed, stopping where there were ducks, many of them unmistakably ruddy ducks. They had stiff, erect tails. Their faces were half white and half black. The female ruddies were dingier, with a single line through their white cheeks.
   Ruddies have the ability to lower themselves like submarines. We saw a light looking individual far out in the pond. As soon as we got our binoculars focused, down she went. When she finally rested on the surface for a minute, we could see she was not white, just wet. Ruddies, like grebes, have a hard time getting airborne. They run raggedly along the water before finally achieving flight.
   We decided to try one of the other ponds. As soon as we stopped, my birding friend said, "There it is!" No trouble sighting the white individual. It stood out in the center of the darker flock. A dark bill and dark spots on wing and head kept it from being a complete albino. We could not see the eyes but I feel sure that they were also dark.
   Male ruddy ducks in breeding plumage are beautiful. Their backs are a warm chestnut color, faces black and white the same as in winter. Their bright blue bills are eye-catchers. We see ruddies in breeding plumage but most of them go elsewhere to get down to business. They nest in dense vegetation of freshwater wetlands from northern Canada down to the Texas panhandle, and also west to the coast of California.
   According to the literature, breeding displays by the males are a show. He swims around the female with fan-shaped tail spread and cocked at a jaunty angle. Then, slapping his gorgeous bill on his puffed-up chest, he chokes and rattles and scoots about the hen, kicking water on her. If she likes his style, with bill wide open she stretches forth her neck toward him.
   The parenting habits of ruddies are unusual too. Some hens lay their first trial eggs in nests of other species. After several false starts, the female weaves a platform of vegetation placed on upright stems above shallow water. There she places from 6 to 10 large eggs - each almost as big as the tiny one-pound hen. She hatches the brood in 21 days.
   (
   The Audubon Outdoor Club of Corpus Christi will meet at 7:15 p.m. tonight at the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History. Everyone is welcome. Quenton Dokken will give a program on "Flower Garden (Coral Reef) of the Gulf."



Phyllis Yochem, a Corpus Christi resident, has studied birds of Texas since 1960.

| Discuss about birdwatching | | Home |

[ Printer-friendly version ]
[ Subscribe to newspaper ]