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princerupert.com

NorthCoast's Regional Information Site

	Wood Ducks on Moresby pond
	These guys were shy and wary; if I tried to sneak up on them to get a better picture they were gone. But there is enough on photo left to make the ID good.

Wood Duck breeding in PR area?

Here is the area they were usually seen at (but not on the date of the picture)

In the literature it looks like a typical site Woodies choose for breeding: wide water with both deep and shallow nearby.

While the picture is not clear some of these birds look like they could be young of the year. The question then becomes were they hatched in vicinity or is this just a stopping point on migration?

After looking the area over, it is my opinion that there are no suitable trees that would be appropriate for a cavity nesting bird. Sounds like a good school project for next spring

Wood Ducks on WWW

Good image plus CBC and breeding maps

Most sources are not aware of breeding records locally

There seems to be a resident pair of Wood Ducks in Moresby. I saw both male and female a couple of times this past fall and the female was recorded on the Dec 30/00 Bird Count. In a previous year someone reported a pair with young although I don't recall the details

R Weber

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Another view of Wood Duck Male

Lots of good info on Aix sponsa (wood duck) on WWW, though some sites have dubious information. One of the better more documented sites is USGS

Since this cavity nesting duck is often endangered in US range there is special efforts to restore or conserve. Thus able to enhance reprodution by using nest boxes. This site gives a good table of ducks requirements including feed.

Summary—Prince Rupert and QCIs are at very northern limit for cavity nesting Wood Ducks, which prefer shallow, wide ponds. Mainly vegetarian but female and young require high energy food like invertebrates/ insects. Thus frequent shallow muddy areas of slow moving streams—like the end of Moresby Pond. While reported to be a local breeder this needs confirmation. Moresby could be a spring and fall staging area for onds more to interior.

This is view of Moresby Pond from West end

This area has beaver dams and is much shallower; the Wood Ducks hang out on a log circled in above image. They can thus go into deeper water or e near the shallow, grassy area.

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