 The DEW Line (Duck Early Warning) On a recent house-sit I met an interesting birder. She did not use binoculars, nor to my knowledge had she ever read a single bird book. Just by looking at her you would never guess she held interesting birding inclinations. Although she tended to limit herself to spotting a narrow range of birds, she had a keen eye and impressed me daily with acute observations. I should also mention that she was white; she was covered all over with feathers, and to the untrained eye looked like nothing more than a run-of-the-mill barnyard duck\family pet. The little white duck was recently purchased to replace another duck that disappeared from the yard under mysterious circumstances. At first I accorded the replacement bird only enough attention to make sure that it did not itself disappear in the grip of some hungry coyote. Because it is the month of May I spend a great deal of time outside and whenever I am outside I look for birds. One of my goals was to keep a daily list of birds seen on the property and if possible, to expand my daily list each consecutive day. To that end I listened and watched intently. Gradually, I tuned in to a strange sound emanating from the little white duck. At first I just listened and thought about how her vocal stylings were otherworldly. She sounded like a ray gun from a 1950s science fiction movie. I wrote off her sounds as something she did in order to communicate with the male duck (who it seems is taking some time getting used to his new mate.) His relationship with the lost duck, Fiona, was the stuff of a Shakespeare love story - and such a strong bond is not easily broken. After about a day of hearing the ‘ray gun’ sound effects, I looked to the little white Duck whenever her calls began. I noticed that while she uttered the sounds her head was tilted to study the sky. I looked in the direction of her gaze and the first few times saw nothing. I thought perhaps she was attempting to look coy. But she persisted. Finally, the duck ‘ray-gunned’ once too often, and I saw what she saw. There, high above the lawn was a Red-tailed Hawk standing motionless in the sky at about the 150 foot level. The Hawk appeared nailed to a cloud. I pulled up a lawn chair and made note of the Hawks’ distance from a tree tip just so I could note any incidental movement. Gradually the Hawk slipped sideways. All the while the little white duck continued ‘ray-gunning.’ Finally the Hawk dropped rapidly in the direction of the neighbour’s yard then with feet extended fell out of sight. The ‘ray-gun’ was silent. After that, every ‘ray gun’ sound was a call to arms. When the little white duck spoke I looked in the direction her eye was trained and sure enough, there was a raptor. I spent several days with her and was amazed at her talent for spotting Hawks and Eagles. She would also ‘ray gun’ for Sandhill Cranes and Ravens, but only if they were very far away. When a Raven chanced to fly low over the house the duck looked up but remained silent. In the following days of the house-sit each daily checklist continued to outstrip the previous day’s list. Sure, I was the one writing the sightings down but I wasn’t the only one doing the birding. I had the help of the DEW line working for me. Often the Hawks, Eagles and Sandhill Cranes on the list were the work of my Duck Early Warning system. I am now convinced that if there was a way to carry a small white duck under my arm on a birding walk my aerial observations would be much improved. To e-mail Tom CLICK HERE To look at previous column CLICK HERE |
