Some waterfowl move into their 

 wintering areas during the night. 

 "They migrate on the moons," Frick 

 says. "You'll get up one morning and 

 there will be thousands of ducks on the 

 refuge that weren't there the day 

 before." 



Dick Brame, a waterfowl biologist 

 at North Carolina State University, 

 says the snow goose will migrate thou- 

 sands at a time, day or night, usually 

 riding the coattails of a good north- 

 wester. "They migrate in high Vs," he 

 says. "When they reach the place they 

 want to overwinter they fall like leaves 

 out of the sky. It's like free falling. It's 

 called whiffling, and the geese are let- 

 ting the air out of their wings. They 

 seem to enjoy it, but I don't know how 

 I know that. They also make a noise 

 that sounds like a high-pitched dog at a 

 distance. They're so loud in a flock you 

 can hardly hear yourself think." 



Scoters, which are sea ducks, 

 migrate only during the day, Brame 

 says. They migrate offshore, forming a 

 line just above the water. "When the 

 scoters come across an obstacle like a 

 boat they fly over it one after 

 another," Brame says. "It looks like 

 someone has snapped a rope." 



Brame says five groups or tribes of 

 ducks can be spotted in North 

 Carolina. Diving ducks (Aythyini) 

 such as canvasbacks, scaup and red- 

 heads will dive to depths up to 60 feet 

 to snack on widgeon grass or Rangia 

 clams. A distinguishing characteristic, 

 diving ducks' feet are located to the 

 back of their bodies to help them dive. 



Dabbling or puddle ducks (Anatini) 

 won't go to such depths for their 

 meals. Mallards, pintails, wigeons, 

 teals and black ducks feed in shallower 

 areas where they need only "tip up" 

 (so their tails are above water) for a 

 taste of pondweed or bulrush seeds. 

 Dabbling ducks' feet are located more 

 forward on their bodies allowing them 

 to walk easily on land and occasionally 

 feed on the remains of harvested crops 

 such as corn. Like a helicopter lifting 

 off a launch pad, dabbling ducks rise 

 straight off the water when taking 

 flight. And one of the dabbling ducks, 

 the black duck, adds a little dazzle to 

 his lift off. According to Brame, as the 

 black duck raises his wings against a 

 blue winter sky, the silver underlinings 

 of his black wings twinkle in the light. 



Scoters, goldeneyes, buffleheads, 

 mergansers, eiders and oldsquaws 

 make up a tribe of ducks known com- 

 monly as sea ducks (Mergini). Sea 

 ducks tend to spend more time in 

 large, open bodies of salt water, though 

 they will sometimes inhabit freshwater 

 areas. They too dive for their food, 

 eating mainly mollusks and fish. 



Ruddy ducks are the only stiff- 

 tailed ducks (Oxyurini) to winter in 

 North Carolina. As their common 

 tribal name suggests, their tail feathers 

 are long, stiff and pointed. Their feet 

 are even further back on their bodies 

 than the diving ducks, making it very 

 awkward for them to walk on land. 



Of the perching ducks (Cairinini), 

 only one, the wood duck, inhabits the 

 United States. The wood duck winters 



and nests in North Carolina. Charac- 

 teristic of perching ducks, the wood 

 duck's legs are forward on its body 

 (further forward than dabbling ducks). 

 They have strong claws for perching, 

 broad wings and a rectangular tail that 

 helps them balance. The male wood 

 duck has been labeled the most 

 beautiful duck in North America. 

 "He's got a big crest and a red and 

 yellow bill, a greenish tinge on his 

 head, two white stripes coming up 

 either side, and a reddish breast 

 sprinkled with white," says Brame. 

 "He has a beautiful, beautiful side. It's 

 a tan gold color with black and white 

 edging on each of his large flank 

 feathers. He's the most striking bird of 

 the bunch." 



The wood duck neared extinction 

 during the first part of the century. 

 Some overhunting, but mainly the 

 clearing of forests (wood ducks nest in 

 the hollows of trees near the water) for 

 lumber and farmland, drove the wood 

 duck populations downward. In an ef- 

 fort to help wood ducks find private 

 niches for their eggs, biologists and 

 concerned citizens began a program to 

 build nest boxes for the birds. Popula- 

 tions were revived, but the ducks still 

 need help. Special precautions must be 

 taken as the nest boxes are built, 

 otherwise the nest will be a sure bet for 

 predation from raccoons or snakes. 



For instructions on how to build a 

 wood duck nest box, contact Gary San 

 Julian, extension wildlife specialist in 

 the zoology department at North 

 Carolina State University. 



Whistling swans are the only mem- 

 bers of the swan genus (Cygnus) to 

 visit North Carolina. Between 18,000 

 and 22,000 whistling swans scatter 

 themselves between Currituck and 

 Pamlico Sounds and Lake Mat- 

 tamuskeet (accounting for 50 percent 

 of the whistling swans in the Atlantic 

 Flyway). A visible concentration of 

 whistling swans can be sited at the 

 Mattamuskeet National Wildlife 

 Refuge. 



One of the whistling swans kin, the 

 trumpeter swan, formerly wintered in 

 this state. But exploitation of the bird 

 for its feathers during the mid- 19th 

 century almost led to the trumpeter's 

 extinction. The trumpeter swan pop- 

 ulations have mounted a slow revival, 

 but its wintering range remains 

 limited. 



Luckily the whistling swan has not 

 suffered such a fate. In fact, the whist- 

 ling swan population in the United 



