On the morning of March 23, I received a phone call from my friend and neighbor, John Keator, who told me that he had a duck in his woodstove. I asked, “You have a what in your woodstove?!” John …
Stay informed about your community and support local independent journalism.
Subscribe to The River Reporter today. click here
This item is available in full to subscribers.
Please log in to continue |
On the morning of March 23, I received a phone call from my friend and neighbor, John Keator, who told me that he had a duck in his woodstove. I asked, “You have a what in your woodstove?!” John is an avid and competent birder, and it was quickly determined that there was some sort of waterfowl in his woodstove. I grabbed a few items and left for John’s house.
I arrived and John turned on the lights to the basement where the woodstove was, and there was a dark eye peering back at me. Through the smoke-stained glass, it appeared to be the size and shape of a mallard. John slowly opened the stove door just enough for a pair of hands, and I grasped the feathered interloper so it would not fly throughout the house and hurt itself.
Once we got it out of the woodstove, we could see that it wasn’t a mallard at all; it turned out to be a female wood duck. Wood ducks are cavity nesters; they will nest in a woodpecker hole or at the hollow at the top of a broken off snag. She may have thought that the chimney would make a nice nest cavity, but she got a bit more cavity than she bargained for; a confined space rescue was now in the works for her.
Luckily, the stove was cold, and it was a large diameter, straight drop to the woodstove with no chance of entrapment in the flue. We gave her a quick checkout and all looked good. John opened a cellar window and I placed her on the outside ledge. She stood there, perhaps getting her bearings for a few seconds, and then she vaulted off the ledge. She weaved between two white pine trees and flew out of sight toward the far shore of Walker Lake, perhaps re-evaluating her nest selection location criteria during her liberation flight.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here