By Sharon L. Moore
“What’s that bird diving under those tied jet skis?” my partner asked. As relatively new birders we were focusing our binoculars along the Salish Sea shoreline of Totten Inlet. Lacking a spotting scope, we strained to see the bird through the low light of a wet November day. After a brief discussion on how to correctly identify the bird, we agreed to note its profile and what we could discern of its coloration and special markings. Later, paging through the illustrations in Birds of the Puget Sound Region by Morse, Averse and Opperman, 2013, we narrowed our choices until we found the bird’s image. There was no mistaking the male’s white cheek patch below his yellow eye, his black, puffy, iridescent, distinctively shaped head, and white horizontal wing patches on his black back. He also had plenty of white on his breast and belly. The bird we’d seen was definitely a male Common Goldeneye. “And look at the female’s contrasting colors,” my partner pointed out. “With a dark chocolate brown head, her body is mottled grey-brown with a white neck collar. She also has a yellow bill tip.”
Thus began our fascination with the Common Goldeneye. Once the jet skis were stored away for winter, a few more birds arrived and continued to frequent that relatively shallow inlet. Always at high tide, they seemed tightly pair-bonded as they foraged in that small flock. Then two years ago we began observing larger flocks of birds out in the middle of the Totten Channel and fairly quickly identified them as goldeneyes primarily by head shape and white underbelly. Out there among larger waterfowl such as surf scoters, cormorants and an occasional loon, they were holding their own, fishing hard for prey. From further reading we learned that when underwater they hold their wings tight to their bodies and kick with their feet. An interesting observation is that when a small flock is feeding together they may often all dive at the same time. Now you see them, now you don’t!
The Common Goldeneye migrates to our lowland, temperate Western Washington world in October/November from their summer months of nesting, raising young and feeding along the lakes, rivers, estuaries and beaver ponds of the vast boreal forests in Canada and the northern United States. This duck species also migrates in and out of regions in Scotland, Scandinavia, the Baltic States and Northern Russia. Preferring shallow, protected waters of from 5 to 15 ft, when they’re here in winter, they inhabit our saltwater inlets and coastal bays. In these environs their diets include highly varied crustacean protein sources like krill, barnacles, seed shrimp, fish lice and crabs. They also feed on mollusks such as snails, slugs, clams, mussels, scallops, squid and oysters. The seeds of water plants such as pondweeds and bulrushes provide important food sources for them as well.
Since these ducks are heavily hunted, they need all the mechanisms for escape they can muster. Unusual for most waterfowl, they only require a running start of 3 to 6 feet to take off from the water. Strong, fast flyers, they can quickly gain altitude, reaching speeds of up to 40 miles an hour. You may hear them approaching overhead with the low, loud metallic whistles of the males as they fly over. Rarely out of the water, they do occasionally walk on land with an erect, vertical stance due to their feet being located close to their tail. This helps them to dive, swim and forage more efficiently under water. At 18” long with a wingspan of 27” they are larger than their close genetic cousins, the Bufflehead, and are considered medium-sized sea ducks. Aggressive, territorial birds, they dominate most other duck species and often challenge them when feeding and nesting.
The birds begin courting soon after they arrive in the fall. Often a group of males will position themselves near a single female and perform an elaborately choreographed routine including throwing their heads back with their bills pointed towards the sky, all uttering a shrill call in unison. They may also make exaggerated short flights close to the female. By December many of the females will have made their choices and formed monogamous pairs. They and their male partners will stay together feeding heavily in anticipation of their northern migration in April back to the boreal forests, lakes, and beaver ponds to breed and procreate.
Since the female does not mate until her second year, once she’s flown to her new summer territory she begins looking secretly for a nesting opportunity she’ll use the next season. The older females will have generally returned to their previous nest sites; however there is a documented scarcity of those. Though the females will use nest boxes if nothing else is available, they prefer dead trees with sparse limbs, the cavities in which have been carved by Pileated Woodpeckers. The cavity must be 5 to 60 ft. above the ground and close to water. She may also consider a hole in a live tree that has easy accessibility through the limbs. Once she has chosen the cavity, she forms an 8” bowl of wood pieces and shavings, lining it with her own breast feathers. While she works, the male forcibly defends their territory. Finally in this dark, secret, snug environment she lays one clutch of 4 to 9 green to bluish-green eggs that she will incubate for approximately 30 days.
If she’s lucky she will raise her brood quietly after the male abandons her midway through the incubation. But wait. What she might not have expected is that other females may crowd into her nest and lay their own eggs there as well. Now the original mother must patiently incubate all those eggs. Parasitic egg laying, both within and between species, is not unusual with the Common Goldeneye. While it’s possible for one nest to hold many more eggs than one clutch, in fact the parasitic number can reach upwards of 20 to 40 eggs. How those can fit into a single nest is difficult to imagine and in those crowded conditions successful hatching tends to be low. Another extreme danger to eggs and hatchlings is predation from crows and large gulls. When the hatchlings finally emerge they are fully covered in black and white down and their eyes are open. Ready to jump from the nest in one day after hatching, they quickly follow their mother to the relative safety of the water where they begin feeding immediately. Subsequently, remaining in the boreal region with their mother through the high summer, those juveniles that have survived will take their initial flight at between 56 and 66 days of age. In the fall they begin their first long flight south to overwinter along the Pacific Northwest coast. And so goes the life cycle of the Common Goldeneye with its remarkable physical strength, mental astuteness and innate determination to survive.
You’ll find Common Goldeneye beginning in October and in larger numbers by November nearly anywhere locally with a saltwater shoreline, particularly at high tides. Try Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, Potlatch State Park, Fry Cove County Park, Woodard Bay Preserve, Olympia East Bay, Capitol Lake, and Luhr Beach for a good chance to observe these stunning sea ducks.
