Mallard nest on carr woodland floor - Henry Andrews Ecologist

Encounters

Mallard nest on carr woodland floor

  • County: Worcestershire
  • Site Name: Ripple

Working my way through willow and alder carr to find a historic decoy pond, I flushed a female mallard from a nest on the woodland floor. I’ve had them in forks of white and crack willow before, but always well over head-height… or so I thought… and then I remembered a nest in dead bracken on an acid site… I will spend some time reading up on their nesting ecology this weekend…

 
 

Henry's Musings

The Fundamental Niche is seldom realised – Homo sapiens is the ultimate ecosystem engineer, but are you occupying your goldilocks-zone..?

 

 

Newton's Third Law is a metaphor for ecological mitigation – every intervention has consequences that may benefit the target species while adversely affecting others…

Newts may mate in ponds, but they 'live' on land...

Presence / Absence – think: Motive, Means & Opportunity...

Time is the master regulator but is it also a resource?

The realised niche is imperfect – think: is the species there ‘because’, or ‘despite’..?

Evolution has no objective – Adaptation is more accident and mutation than design and intention…