This Morning Outside

by Diane Porter

May 20 , 2011
Birdwatching Dot Com
Fairfield, Iowa

The male wood duck gets all the attention, as he's the flashy one. Gaudy, some might say. You've seen his picture a zillion times. But I love the complex colors of the female wood duck's back and wings and the 6-shaped white patch around her eye.

The mother wood duck makes a squeal that sounds like a rusty hinge. And when she does it and swims off, her babies come along behind as fast as they can.

For several weeks I've been seeing a pair of adult wood ducks along Crow Creek. But the last few days, the babies have been with one or both parents. Must have hatched very recently, somewhere in a hole in one of those trees along the creek.

—Diane Porter

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