Notes on parenting

Bird parenting, that is.

We are used to osprey, mallard and merganzer families at Lake Ozonia.  One year, a single merganzer parent ended up with a real freight train of little ones — 17 ducklings following her along the shore. Apparently, it happens. Abandonment? Predation? Whatever orphans the young ducks, merganzer mothers are known to be welcoming to the odd young ones. That’s nice.

This year, I’m pretty sure we have a fledgling raven — and parents — hanging around. The fledgling raven call, according to the Audubon Bird Guide application on my Iphone (from Lang Elliot, Nature Sound Studio), is quite distinctive. A real squawk-y, monotone  holler. And LOUD.

The first time we heard it, the young one was in a big white pine overlooking our corner of the lake. There was a lot of commotion up there, with an adult raven clambering around, flying in and out of the top of the tree . Eventually, crows mobbed in, and the ravens moved on. It was all so loud and dramatic and distressing, and persistent, the dog ran out and sounded his own alarm. That was a few weeks ago. We’ve heard the same hollering call, from various directions in the woods around the shore, pretty regularly.

According to the  sources I’ve consulted, this could go on for weeks. Corvids, including ravens and crows, feed their young for a long time after they’ve fledged.  And the raven family  stays together for even longer — six months or so.  I just hope we see them all together  before too long.

And a final nice story of bird parenting from Barbara Dunham in Pottersville. She sent this e-mail in late June:

We hang a block of suet outside our dining room window winter and summer.  Over the last several weeks we have observed the parenting patterns of a family (mom, dad and boychild) of woodpeckers.  They come to the suet feeder on an almost hourly schedule in the morning, at noon and around dinner time. They also drop by at odd hours.

Although junior is almost the size of his parents (and a good deal plumper and fluffier) they continue to feed him.  And it’s almost always the dad who does the feeding.  When they brought him for the first time, he sat on our deck fence while dad plucked big chunks of fat from the suet and brought them to junior, presenting the morsels like a kiss.  Then mom did the same and flew off leaving dad and junior behind.  Now it’s almost entirely dad who does the child rearing.  He leads junior from the suet to our apple tree, from the apple tree to the maple and back to the suet.  It has been a simply lovely thing to watch.  Now after a couple of weeks, junior can do the suet thing by himself…and does.  But dad still feeds him regularly.  And guides him from tree to tree literally pointing out the best bugs locations.  Then they fly off together.  Sometimes two, sometimes the three of them.  At dusk we hear them call to each other.  It’s a beautiful thing.

Yes, it is a beautiful thing.