Duck Crossing
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Posted by Rosemary Drisdelle Jun 12, 2006 |
If you like ducks, you'll enjoy my article on duck tolling; it seems that ducks often let their curiosity lead them into trouble. That's not the only duck behavior, however, that does: ducks have a stubborn determination that can get them killed as well. In the spring, it might help if every road near duck habitat had a duck crossing sign.
A friend told me an all too familiar story a few days ago. On her morning commute to work, she saw a mother duck crossing the highway with a whole brood of ducklings. This particular highway is a major route into the city, with four or five lanes in each direction in many places (and not a duck crossing sign in sight). Morning rush hour is no time to be leading your little ones across that road.
It was probably a Mallard Duck, by far the most common species of duck in this area. The mallard nests in grass or other low vegetation and the female lays an egg a day until she has about a dozen. She doesn't start incubating the clutch until she's finished laying, so they all hatch at about the same time. When the ducklings are ready to travel, the mother duck leads the brood on a long walk to whatever body of water she has chosen for the next stage of their upbringing. This charming but dangerous march results in ducks crossing paths, roads, parking lots, and even major highways.
Presumably mother Mallards aren't able to evaluate the overland route for traffic safety, and their determination to get to the right body of water often gets them killed. In some places, municipalities post duck crossing signs, and assist the ducks whenever possible, but a mother duck crossing a major route in morning traffic has little hope of making it alive, much less with all of her brood intact.
Nevertheless, my friend reported that an unlikely lull in the traffic seemed to do the trick - the brood made it across... directly into a construction site. Their fate from there remains unknown. We hope they're happily paddling a nearby lake now.
Fortunately, Mallard Ducks are plentiful and populations remain strong in spite of traffic fatalities. The story is different for the Piping Plover. Watch for my article on the efforts to save this shore bird, later this week.
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