While driving across Sugar Creek, I slowed down to look downstream and saw a pair of wood ducks on the water. I pulled the vehicle to the side of the road, grabbed my binoculars and crept back to get a closer look at the ducks.

However, before getting to the stream bank, I heard the calling of a wood duck and watched as the pair took flight and flew away.

This wood duck incident reminded me of a phone call that I received many years ago from Wes McNett of Canton. When I heard the excitement in his voice, I knew he had something special to tell me.

It seemed he had been out turkey hunting for a few days in his favorite area, one where he had killed turkeys in previous years. On his third morning of sitting in the same spot, McNett was startled when he heard the sudden fluttering of wings. He quickly turned to see the cause of the noise and saw a female wood duck flying down from a hole in a nearby tree.

The female wood duck was aware of McNett’s presence and tried to keep a distance from him. He then watched as nine young ducklings came out of the same hole and one after the other they quickly fluttered to the ground. McNett calculated that the young ducks fluttered 30-35 feet before landing on the ground. Before McNett could get to his camera, the female quickly led her brood through the woods and underbrush and disappeared.

When I asked him if the female had called the young, he replied that if she did, he had not heard.

McNett went on to tell me that Sugar Run Stream was the closest water and approximately 400 yards away. The stream, which raced down the mountain, was not the slow-moving water one would expect to find a female wood duck raising her young. McNett figured the female probably led her ducklings to the Lycoming Creek, which was a half mile away.

The McNett family live in the woods on the side of a mountain where wildlife is abundant. McNett once observed a male and female wood duck searching the woods for a good cavity tree. McNett watched as the male checked out a hole in a particular tree. The male flew away and returned with the female to check out the hole. She went inside but the tree must not have passed inspection because that tree cavity was never used to raise her young.

Male and female wood ducks pair up before leaving their wintering range. This is followed by an intense courtship even before they start north. Ninety percent of hens arriving in the north during the spring will already have mates. More than 50% of the hens that migrate north will go to the same general location in which they were hatched or had nests the previous year. A male will probably not return to his home area but rather follow the hen to hers.

The hen will build a nest in a tree cavity, preferably over water; however, just as in McNett’s story, nests can be found over a mile from the nearest water.

The eggs hatch in approximately 35 days and all on the same day. The hen will brood the young for 24 hours and then leave the nest to check for danger. If all is OK, she calls to the young, who respond with peeping calls. Immediately the young begin to jump up towards the nest entrance, where they cling to the walls of the tree or box, and then jump again and again until they reach the entrance.

After pausing momentarily, the young — one by one — spring outward to the water or ground below. This jump could be as high as 60 feet, however, the landing is safely made.

After the last duckling leaves the nest, the female will lead her brood to water. If born over water, the hen could continue moving the brood to different impoundments. One hen moved her brood seven times in a 47-day period.

At one time the wood duck was near extinction, then in 1918 the governments of the United States and Canada closed the hunting season on wood ducks and it remained closed until 1941. At this time, conservationists began placing wood duck nesting boxes in their favorite habitats and their numbers rebounded.

Wood ducks are ducks of the forest and are particularly fond of nuts from the forest trees. The crop of one dead wood duck contained 56 acorns. The diet of a wood duck is made up of plant life, and it is especially fond of tiny floating duckweeds. They also eat a host of other aquatic plants, grapes, seeds, and nuts. Wood ducks eat more fruit and nuts than any other American duck.

The wood duck is regarded by many as the most beautiful duck in North America. The wood duck’s scientific name is Aix sponsa, which comes from the Greek word aix, meaning a water bird. The species’ name is Latin, meaning a betrothed, a bride, or a promised one, which is in reference to its exquisite plumage. The common name wood comes from its preferred habitat of swampy areas surrounded by woods.

Bill Bower is a retired Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Officer. Read his blog and listen to his podcasts on the outdoors at www.onemaningreen.com.