An Afternoon at Choctaw Lake

This past November, I spent an afternoon walking with my family at Choctaw Lake, which is part of Tombigbee National Forest in Mississippi.  Although I have been there many times over the years, I never tire of it, since there is always something interesting to see.  The main walking trail loops all the way around the lake, passing—at various points—through woods, up hills, and over creeks and marshes.  Because it was only mid-November, there was plenty of colorful fall foliage, but it was late enough in the season that ducks had also begun arriving from up north.

Close to our starting point, a dead tree was partly submerged at the edge of the lake.  In the photo, you can see tall loblolly pine trees at the far bank (and reflecting in the water).  This species dominates most of the woodlands in this area.  However, deciduous trees, like the ones in the lower photo, also make quite a showing in some pockets of forest.

Shortly after we started walking, I realized that there were several ducks on the open water.  Their relatively small size, compact bodies, long tails, dark caps, and pale cheeks marked them as Ruddy Ducks.  The lighting from this angle wasn’t great, but, if you look closely, you can see the plumage pattern that I mentioned.  It’s clearest on the duck in the back.

 Here’s another picture of the Ruddy Ducks:

In some of the lower-lying portions of the trail, buttonbush shrubs provide cover to a variety of wildlife.  As I walked through one of these havens, a covey of at least 15 Northern Bobwhites flushed, wings furiously beating the air, right in front of me.  Unfortunately, they had all left before I could snap a photo.  Other birds in flight that I saw, but could not photograph, were a pair of Hooded Mergansers and a flock of six Rick-necked Ducks.

About half an hour later, from a better vantage point, I was able to observe and take pictures of both Ruddy Ducks and another species that I hadn’t seen earlier on the walk: Buffleheads!  The pictures below show the Bufflehead ducks mingling with the Ruddy Ducks.  The black-and-white male Bufflehead in the top photo is obvious, even if the picture quality is a bit grainy.  Female Buffleheads in the lower photos have brown heads with white “ear” patches, which help to distinguish them from the Ruddy Ducks.  Both Ruddies and Buffleheads are small ducks that prefer to stay on large bodies of water during the winter.  I was glad to see them using the habitat at Choctaw Lake.

In another 30 minutes or so, we had walked over two miles and were nearing the end of the loop.  We had to cross the bridge over the spillway, and then complete the remainder of the trail to the parking lot.  I spotted a skein of Canada Geese that flew over the calm, clear water and landed to join the other rafts of waterfowl.  It was the end of our outing, but I hope to visit Choctaw Lake again in 2020.  Best wishes for the new year!

The Northern Flicker

A shrill ki-ki-ki-ki-ki-ki breaks the silence of the forest, and a pair of fairly large brown birds with flashes of yellow in their wings and tails alight upon a decaying stump and begin picking off little flakes of bark.

With its flashy colors and raucous calls, the Northern Flicker is a difficult bird to miss.  It is a permanent resident of the Southeast and can be found in a variety of habitats where deadwood is present.  Flickers often forage on the ground in search of ants and beetle larvae.  In my own yard I can sometimes see as many as six at a time, poking their bills into the dry, dead grass in search of these insects.  Flickers also feed on small fruits and will come to feeders for suet or peanuts.

At twelve and a half inches from the tip of the bill to the tip of the tail, the Northern Flicker is the second-largest woodpecker in Mississippi.  It has black bars on its brown upper parts and spots on the under parts.  A patch of gray extends from the crown to the nape, and the male bird has a black stripe on its face.  Both sexes have bright red bars on the backs of their heads.  The white rump patch and yellow underwings are conspicuous when the birds are in flight.

Northern Flickers have a variety of calls for different situations.  A short peeough is used as a contact call between related flickers.  The ki-ki-ki-ki-ki is a territory advertisement, and the flicka-flicka-flicka-flicka for which the bird was named is used during courtship and aggressive encounters.  These two longer calls can be confused with the calls of the crow-sized Pileated Woodpecker, but, unlike the calls of this huge bird, they do not change in pitch or loudness.  Flickers drum often, sometimes choosing to do so on tin roofs at the crack of dawn, creating a great disturbance to anyone inside the house.

Nesting occurs in spring when a pair of flickers excavate a hole in a tree, a fence post, a utility pole or a nest box.  Flicker boxes should be 16 inches tall with a 7x7-inch floor and a hole two and a half inches in diameter.  The box should be at least four feet above the ground and should preferably be filled with sawdust so that the birds can partially satisfy their desire to excavate a cavity.  Even with all these rules, flickers apparently aren’t picky.  They will use almost any box large enough, including Wood Duck boxes.  The 3-10 white eggs are incubated by the female during the day and the male at night.  They hatch in about 12 days, and the hatchlings are ready to leave the nest in four weeks.

If your yard has the right habitat, put up a flicker box and study their behavior as they fledge their chicks.  If you already have a nesting box, continue to observe these noisy but beautiful birds throughout the year.



Sources:

 “Conservation Trails.”  WildBird.   March, 1994.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Guide to Birds of North America, Version 3.