Duck And Her \Paratrooper' Ducklings Have A Flying Good Time
F. Scott Canterberry
Canterberry
Accepts Post
F. Scott Canterberry has been
named associate editorial director
of the American Association of
Textile Chemists and Colorists in
Research Triangle Park. A West
Virginia native who grew up in
Edenton and Cary, Canterberry
graduated in December from the
University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill with a BA in jour
nalism and chemistry. He is the
son of Mr. and Mrs. James H.
Canterberry of Cary.
Canterberry has worked for a
number of campus and profes
sional publications, including
“Drug Topics” published in
Oradell, N.J. While a student, he
also held positions at IBM, North
Carolina State University and
United Airlines.
In the new post, Canterberry
will work on AATCC’s monthly
magazine, “Textile Chemist and
Colorist”, in addition to other
publications of the association.
AATCC is the world’s largest
technical and scientific society
devoted to textile chemistry.
Founded at Boston in 1921 and now
headquartered in Research
Triangle Park, the association has
members throughout the United
States and in 50 other countries.
Edenton Pilgrimage
U™ April 24 ■ 25
As of today, April 20th at 9 a.m.
Um wood duck nesting in the
hollow tree in the side yard still
has not brought off her brood. Ac
cording to the information I’ve
been able to gather, the incubation
period for wood ducks is 28 to 31
days. This female selected her
nest site on March 2 and for the
next fourteen days spent about an
hour each morning in the nest,
presumably laying an egg each
day, the male waiting patiently in
the tree outside the nest hole un
til she was ready to leave, then
leaving with her. On March 17 she
stayed on the nest all day and we
started timing her incubation
from this date.
She has stuck to this schedule
ever since, only leaving for an
hour or so each morning to feed.
She has been on the nest for thirty
five days now and still no duck
lings. I want to photograph the
ducklings jumping from the tree
to the ground so I have been sit
ting near the window each day for
the past week checking the nest at
least once every hour through a
powerful telescope.
I can tell when she is inside
because she has a broad white
eye-ring which shows up, clearly
back in the dark hollow, so I know
that she has been faithfully sitting
on her eggs all day, every day for
the last thirty-five days. I hope
something happens soon, because
I’m getting cabin fever!
Being confined to the window or
the deck for the last week however
has forced me to observe ac
tivities in the woods around the
yard more closely and I have
discovered the active nests of six
species of birds in addition to the
wood duck. The chickadees, nut
hatches, mourning doves, and
Carolina wrens all have young in
the nest. The red-bellied
woodpeckers, and the flickers are
incubating eggs in their nests. A
male ruby-throated hummingbird
showed up in the yard on April 14.
I got out my two feeders and pul
them both up, one in its old loca
tion by the deck and the small one
on the lamppost. He found them
both within twenty minutes anc
has taken up a perch where he car
monitor both feeders and attempi
fafttryman's Joamal
By PARIS TRAIL
to reserve them for his sole use.
I can foresee a lively time when
more males show up and when the
females begin to arrive in a week
or so.
9:45 a.m. Hold everything, I
take back everything I’ve been
thinking about the wood duck. I
just checked through the telescope
and one little duckling was look
ing back at me from among it’s
mother’s breast feathers. It is
covered with down, is a dark
brown, and has light tan cheeks.
It looked dry and active so I’m go
ing to get my camera set up to
record them when they begin to
leave the nest, hopefully
sometime today. I wish I had a lit
tle more sun but I’m now set up
and ready so I’ll continue with the
Journal while I’m waiting for the
“coming-out party.”
The ducklings do a considerable
amount of soft peeping from
within the shell before they hatch
and the mother talks back to
them. Then, when they hatch, and
as they dry out, they and the
mother continuously vocalize
together. It is this process which
bonds the young to their mother so
they will recognize her, follow her
closely, and instantly obey her
summons and commands. It takes
a lot of bonding to make a tiny
duckling obey his mother’s call
and unhesitantly take the forty
foot jump from the nest to (he
ground.
I’m sitting in a makeshift blind
at the window of the third floor
bathroom. With the screen remov
ed and the glass back I have an
excellent view of the wood duck
nest and the deciduous woods
behind it. The trees are leafing out
and rapidly fleshing out the bare
bones of the trees. In a week or so
it will be one big, green, wall, but
for now I can see quite a ways in
to it.
A flush of spring warblers are
moving through it this morning,
calling continuously and, while
watching them with binoculars, I
picked up a slight movement and
have been able to locate seven
deer, all bedded down and chew
ing their cud. We see this group
around the house almost every
day. The other night fourteen
were standing in the driveway
when we left the house.
The pair of red-headed
woodpeckers that I have been
observing all winter in the cut
over woods on Drummond Point
are finally digging a nest hole.
They are being pestered con
tinously by starling who
sometimes drive them from the
nest holes when they have them
' 'I
For All Of Your Insurance Needs
Contact
Allen B. Harless, Jr.
EDENTON, NORTH CAROLINA 27932
PHONE 919/482-4481
Kellogg-Morgan Agency, Inc
completed. There is a new mock
ingbird nest in the big vitex bush
in the garden of Cupola House. It
has four very young nestlings in it,
and as it is very close to the
sidewalk, if you stand quietly you
can watch the parents feed them
from a very close distance.
Last fall, the state highway
department planted a mile long
strip of wildflowers along both
sides of Route 17 by-pass, and on
Easter Sunday I noticed that some
of the flowers were up and in
bloom. They are at the intersec
tion of By-pass 17 and Business 17
nearest the Chowan River Bridge,
and are on both sides of Route 17
near the young pines. Those in
bloom looked like plants in the
snapdragon genus. The plants
themselves looked the same but
there were four different flower
colors. Several deep red flowers
on very short plants looked like
Downy Phlox, and north of the in
tersection a fairly thick stand of
another plant was up but not yet
in bloom.
These are experimental plan
tings to date but it might be a good
idea to let our state officials know
we appreciate and applaud their
efforts.
9:40 a.m. Tuesday, April 21st.
The wood ducks just came off! I
have been watching her since
dawn. She came out shortly
several times, flew around brief
ly, then returned. At 9:35 she flew
down to the ground below the nest.
She must have called softly
because all the little ducklings lin
ed up at the entrance and jumped
in a long line just like
paratroopers coming out of a
plane. There were eleven of them
altogether and most of them were
in the air at the same time. The'
were all down in less tnan f ■. e
seconds.
The mother crouched low and
led them through the iu, „ .... >l.°s
and leaves back to the big ditch in
the edge of the woods. The duck
lings stayed so close to her and
she crouched so low that they
looked like some strange kinu ol
animal snaking through the may
apple plants!
Joseph Scalf
EDENTON OPTICAL SHOP
705 N. Broad
Joseph Scalf is a licensed optician with over 35
years experience making and fixing eye glasses.
Metal frames soldered
Plastic frames repaired
Can put your old lenses in a new frame
Eyeglass prescriptions filled
Come in and see our large frame selection
“FREE ADJUSTMENTS'’
We Service Medicaid,
Service for the Blind, & Medicare
PHONE: 482-7126
Hours 9-5 Monday through Friday
Can arrange for a special time to suit you
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