Dark Ducks in Lancaster County in October

     Deciduous leaves turn colors in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania during September and October, with a climax of color by the end of October.  No place are those autumn leaves more beautiful than when reflected in ponds and streams bordered by deciduous trees.  And two kinds of ducks with dark plumage, wood ducks and black ducks, add to the beauty of colored foliage and the bodies of water they shelter and rest on late in fall and into early winter.  These two duck species are particularly hard to approach, adding some wildness to the waters of this overly civilized county. 
     Wood ducks nested in tree hollows and nesting boxes erected especially for them along those same waterways and impoundments in Lancaster County farmland.  And by fall those woodies and their young of the year gather on those waters prior to their migrations south for the winter.  Hen woodies are their usual gray selves for camouflage, but the drakes are colorful and striking, but dark in plumage, being particularly lovely on water under colored leaves.  Drakes have green hoods on their heads, red on their beaks and white cheeks.  But are also hard to see because of their almost black winter plumage they still have in the March breeding season.
     In autumn, woodies feed on acorns, seeds and other vegetation, putting on weight for their trip south, usually in October or November.  Most woodies migrate south in autumn, but a few winter here, as long as there is some open and sheltered water in woods, woodlots and hedgerows.
     Black ducks start arriving here from breeding territories farther north toward the end of October, therefore overlapping a bit with the wood ducks on some of the same bodies of water here.  Both of these dark species of ducks are interesting to see together.  And they have dark plumages because their species developed in the shadows of woodlands.
     Black ducks are dusky all over, with olive beaks on drakes and brown ones on females.  From a distance, or in the  air, or when perched on snow or ice, they really do look black.
     At dusk in winter, black ducks join Canada geese and their close cousins, the mallard ducks, in harvested cornfields where they shovel up waste corn kernels from the ground.  Flocks of those species of waterfowl leave their roosting waters and fly swiftly out to croplands, being silhouetted against sunsets, or cloudy skies, as they go.  The continually honking geese are readily heard from a distance, and the rapid whistling of the ducks' wings are heard when closer to those birds.  But all those species of waterfowl are exciting to experience every time they are encountered.
     The hardy black ducks spend the winter here in Lancaster County and leave to migrate north sometime in March.  And during that same month, wood ducks return to this area to rear ducklings, causing an overlap with the black ducks again.   
     One can spot these kinds of ducks in autumn and spring if one knows where to look.  These ducks add another touch of wildness to this county.