PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Tony Crowasdale is smitten with wood ducks.
“They are absolutely gorgeous. The males are a bit more gaudy — but classy. They’ve got this greenish head with a kind of mullet — or kind of like a droopy crest — and they’re kind of outlined in white. And they have a patch of chestnut. And their bills have red and white on it,” he said on a recent visit to Wissahickon Valley Park.
“The females are very subtly beautiful, as well. They kind of have white that outlines their eye. On the wing, there is a little blue patch. I think they are very beautiful as well.”
Crowasdale is talking about a stunning sighting of wood ducks in the park.
“Right now we are seeing about 30. And I’ve seen it as high as 40 from this spot.”
He’s an environmental programs specialist with Philadelphia Parks and Recreation, and the supervisor of Wissahickon Environmental Center.
This is breeding season — the time of year that this spot along the Wissahickon Creek by Valley Green becomes a wood duck mecca.
Unlike most ducks, the 2 lb. wood duck does not nest on the ground, Crowasdale says. They usually find tree cavities.
“The Wissahickon is a mature forest, so we actually have a lot of natural tree cavities — just from the tree’s own decay or disease, or a branch breaking off,” said Crowasdale.
“But also there are a lot of pale woodpeckers. It’s a very large Woodpecker, that makes a very large hole. But also Parks and Recreation and the Friends of the Wissahickon have installed a fair amount of wood duck boxes.”
The boxes are man-made, and they provide a place for the females to rest, relatively safe from predators.
Ornithology experts say wood ducks arriving at their breeding grounds in the spring are already paired. The species is the only duck in North America that usually has two broods in a year.
Catherine Scanga and her husband Ben Anderson, from Rhode Island, were in the area visiting family when they came across the wood duck enclave.
“And we walked down to the water and we were like ‘Wow! That’s unbelievable. There is a wood duck here!’ Usually you just see the geese and the mallards, and that’s incredible to see the wood duck. And they get really close to us. They came right up on us. That’s the closest I have ever been to a wood duck,” Scanga said.
“They are stunning.”
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