BIRDS OF NANTUCKET
ANOTHER TOOL FOR THE BIRDER'S TOOLKIT
by Kenneth Turner Blackshaw
Last year we had a Fork-tailed Flycatcher show up on Nantucket and now there is another handsome individual wowing the birders in Rye, N.H. There is also a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in Maine. Saw-whet Owls are migrating past now. In Florida I see Roseate Spoonbills but never here. I'm sure that many of you will "dig" this week's bird, particularly if you want to "hole" up for the winter on Nantucket. Its official name is the Northern Shoveler, although hunters call them "spoonbills."

Northern Shoveler

The Northern Shoveler is a duck. When you see it in your bird book you might think it looks a bit like a Mallard. The drakes have shiny green heads. But in practice you should never be confused. The big spatulate bill is a giveaway if you can see it. It is twice as long as a normal duck bill and flares out toward the tip. In flight it changes the proportion of the whole bird, making it look like the bird's wings are placed strangely far to the rear. Its Latin name, Anas clypeata, translates to "a duck with a shield, perhaps referring to the rich brown flanks of the males. It's interesting that there is no reference to the big shovel bill in the name. The males also show a big splotch of blue in the forewing, grey in the female, very similar to a Blue-winged Teal, and shovelers are small, almost as small as a teal.

This is another bird we've only gotten to know recently on Nantucket. When Griscom and Folger did their book in 1948, there was just a single record prior to 1901. The first modern sighting was by Clint Andrews, who spotted one with Davis Crompton on March 10, 1951. In 1979 we had one for our Christmas Bird Count and they've gradually become regular to the point where a few are expected every year.

This is a circumpolar duck, found across Asia and Europe as well as America. I remember seeing one in winter on the island of Taiwan off the coast of China. Any duck landing there was in jeopardy because the locals believed that eating a wild duck would help them tolerate the cold winter weather.

When you see a swimming shoveler it gives you the impression it is riding low in the water. Shovelers don't tip up and dabble with their rear ends in the air as Mallards do. Instead they swim forward, skimming that wonderful bill back and forth in the water, using the serrations on the side to filter out the goodies they love. This is a lot like the technique a baleen whale uses to get its dinner. Shoveler diet includes much vegetable matter but also small fish, frogs, tadpoles, worms, snails and insects. Audubon felt this diet made them outrank the Canvasback as a "table" duck.

Northern Shovelers mostly nest out west from the prairie pothole region of the Dakotas and then north. In Massachusetts, they have been found to nest above Cape Ann and, at least once, just a few miles away on Monomoy Island. They are mainly ground nesters, lining a depression with grass and then down from their own breasts. Ten to 12 eggs are normal. Mrs. Shoveler does most of the chick raising. Interestingly she is a captive parent. All her flight feathers are molted away shortly after the chicks hatch and she doesn't regain her ability to fly much before they do.

Shovelers are considered rare on Nantucket from September through May. Good places to see them include the pond next to Topgail Road off the Polpis Road. About half-a-dozen frequented the Creeks between Monomoy and the Boatyard last spring.

One Sunday the Nantucket Bird Club found a drake hobnobbing with the Mallards in a Hooper Farm Road yard. It was interesting to compare his profile with that of the Mallards. His shorter legs and more horizontal stance made him appear more football shaped. Also another key factor popped out at us, his baleful yellow eyes. Mallard eyes are dark and are lost in the glossy green of their heads. Just scanning across the group it appeared the shoveler's eyes were staring straight back at you!

It's always worthwhile scanning across a flock of birds that first may appear mundane. Birds of a feather

sometimes harbor a stranger. I

George C. West creates illustrations for these articles. If you enjoy 'social' birding, join the Nantucket Bird Club at 8 a.m. Sundays in front of Nantucket High School for a two to three hour birding trip. Call 228-1693 for more information.

To hear about rare birds, or to leave a bird report call the Massachusetts Audubon hot line at 1-781- 259-8805. Ask Ken a question at: kenandcindy1@comcast.net.