Duck in a Tree?

[CaptC]

My early morning walk this morning turned up something I have never, in my three score years and ten seen - a duck purposefully landing in a tree.

A mallard duck took off from a nearby field and flew towards me making a lot of noise. It landed midway up a beech tree on a stout branch and it was still there when I returned some 30 minutes later. Quite happy squatted down on the branch.

We have a few mallard pairs that go off piste into the woods this time of year for some peace and quiet but they don't sit in trees!

[figgy]

As a child we visited Harewood House. At the edge of the driveway there is a balustrade wall, when looking over it there was female mallard on her nest in the climbing plants shrubs. It was a good way above the ground.

I dropped a bit of drive gravel to see if she would move to see how many eggs or ducklings, got caught and smacked ***. 

Then a little older the cricket ground had a stand of big pines and conifers along the road bordering the park and pond. Every year we would watch the hens walk the duckling over the road into the pond. Could never find the nests until we seen them nesting in the lower branches trees where the brown wood started to fan out. Never knew it as anything odd until now.

Edited March 5, 2020 by figgy

[Mice!]

I've said it before,  every year along our street they land on the roofs and happily sit there in the sun.

[CaptC]

Thanks! Very interesting. As said, I have seen them in the woods sitting (but not nesting) in the foliage but never up a tree!

[old man]

Have seen nests in the past up in suitable locations, they seemed to like old mature crack willows.

Land on a neighbours conservatory regularly in summer.

[islandgun]

I remember one nesting in a ruined tower next to the river Dee,  similar to the one pictured

[TRINITY]

You see as many mallards as house sparrows on the roofs around where I live. They also nest in peoples gardens well away from any water. Their chicks then are unable to make it to the safety of the local lake. Mallards as well as widpigeons seem to be thriving in the urban environment where I live.

[panoma1]

Used to flush mallard regularly out of the pollarded willows along the Worcs Birmingham canal!

[twenty]

Mallard will often use tree hollows for nesting purposes, (usually, but not always, close to ponds, rivers etc), other ducks that nest in tree hollows include Mandarin, Goldeneye and Smew.

[The Heron]

Quite a common occurance where I walk by a river mallards either land on the river or roost in the trees.