Is cabin fever setting in? Then it’s time to bundle up, grab your binoculars and head outside for some winter duck-watching!
Walking along the shores of Lake Michigan between October and April, you can spot some Common Goldeneye, Red-breasted Merganser and Greater Scaup.
Michelle Allison is a birder and an environmental educator at the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center. She says as the water in the north freezes and cuts off their food, ducks only fly south enough to find open water — like Lake Michigan and other Great Lakes.
Lake Effect’s Xcaret Nuñez spoke with Allison for this month’s Chirp Chat to learn more about duck migration, behavior and tips on where to spot them.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What makes winter a great time of year for duck watching?
In the winter, we have all kinds of ducks that visit our area on Lake Michigan that might not be here the rest of the year. We have a lot of duck species in North America that breed in Canada. So they're going to nest and raise young further north of Wisconsin, and then during the winter, when they're not breeding, they're going to fly south to open water like our Lake Michigan area, and so we see all kinds of duck species here in the winter that we wouldn't see in other times of the year.
People are familiar with the idea of birds flying south for the winter, where it might be warmer for them. Why do ducks and waterfowl fly here when it's cold?
When you think about birds breeding in Canada, if they are flying south, this is south for them. So it might not be the warmest place in the winter for humans, but for ducks, the cold temperatures aren't really going to bother them too much. They're also looking for open water where they can find food, and Lake Michigan doesn't freeze over typically, and so they're going to be able to find plenty of food on Lake Michigan and not have to compete [with other ducks] further south, like in Florida, where we might think of going for the winter. So they're going to have more opportunities to find food here without the added competition of all the birds that are actually going to those southern locations.
You mentioned ducks are here for resources in the winter — what do they typically eat, and how do they stay warm?
We categorize ducks into two groups: dabbling ducks and diving ducks. Dabbling ducks, like Mallards, might have more vegetation that they're eating. They'll still eat invertebrates when they can catch them, but they tend to be eating things like duckweed… dabbling ducks also tip their bodies over to get to that food.
Diving ducks do just what it sounds like — they dive underneath the surface of the water to catch their food, so they're really more hunting. They may be catching fish or invertebrates, like clams and mollusks. They're really finding those high-protein, high-fat food sources that'll give them some extra calories and fuel to stay warm throughout the winter.
When you're looking out on the lake, ducks will also sometimes group together in huge rafts — sometimes hundreds, maybe even a thousand or more ducks at a time. They are really looking for safety in numbers so they can avoid predators by being in large groups… they're also huddling to keep warm. So when you have a big group of ducks in the winter and it's really cold, and you see a whole bunch of ducks grouped together tightly, they're probably hunkering down and using that extra body heat to keep warm among the whole group.
Chirp Chat’s Bird of the Month for December
Ruddy Duck
“My favorite duck is probably the Ruddy Duck,” Allison says. “[Male Ruddy Ducks] are a smaller duck with a blue bill, a black head, a big white patch on the cheek. My favorite part is their tail that sticks up and fans out. Males are especially really fun to watch during breeding season when they're displaying. Ruddy Ducks would also be easiest to find during migration in fall and spring. But males and females are just really fun to watch because they're so unique, and I think they're pretty cute.”
