The wood duck is a cousin of the Asian Mandarin duck with an inherited oriental and iridescent plumage, red eyes, and a distinctive white flare down the neck. The less colorful female has a whitish throat, but with a crested head like the male.

Color in nature is not just a means of concealment. Most male birds benefit by brighter plumage than their mates, perhaps to put on a show to impress them at the time of courting.

They both have crested heads and are classified as perching ducks with sharp claws for climbing and perching on trees. They usually nest high up in a hollow opening of a tree 20 feet or more, to discourage predators from getting from seven to twenty-five eggs that only incubate for about thirty days.

Amazingly enough, a day or two after hatching, the mother calls to them to climb to the edge of the nest entrance and jump to the ground, preferably over water to soften the impact of landing since they are unable to fly yet. The mother does not help them in any way, and they already know how to swim and look for food.

They feed by dabbling and walking on land and mainly eat berries, acorns, seeds, and insects, making them omnivores. In temperate regions, they may nest more than once in a season before migrating south for the winter.

The population was in serious decline in the late 19^th century due to habitat loss and market hunting for meat and plumage for the ladies hat market in Europe. Next to the mallard, the wood duck was and still is the most hunted duck in America.

After the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, numbers began to recover slowly by ending unregulated hunting and implementing measures to protect remaining habitats. The development of the artificial nesting box gave a big additional boost to convenient production. Also, the return of the beaver population with their industrious work ethic building dams and creating wooded swamps, ponds, and widening streams, greatly increased the wood duck’s feeding and nesting habitat.

Often the nesting boxes appear to be unused, and a recent tagging study by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows they are more likely to take occupancy in boxes that they pass on their way south, remembering them on the way back.

If you have ever seen the remarkable spectacle of ducklings jumping down from a tree nest a day after hatching in a beaver pond, as in my illustration, it may well be an unforgettable impression as it was for me. And it may be a lasting imprint in the survival of species from predation that makes them more comfortable for them and entertaining for bird watchers.

By George B. Emmons

Name: Pat McGonigle

Age: 46

Currently lives in: Kansas City

How he got here: Lived in Mattapoisett from 1971-94

Favorite Tri-Town place: Crescent Beach and Oxford Creamery

What he’d change if he were the President of Tri-Town: “When I was a kid, really little, the parking lot that has the funeral home and police station, there used to be a circus there. I’d bring the circus back to Mattapoisett.”

Ever seen a celeb locally? “Sam Waterston … Well, I never actually saw him, but I loved hearing the accounts of people who did. It’s almost like he’s this mythical figure.”

By Jonathan Comey

            Pat McGonigle is going places. Literally.

He’s driving from St. Louis to Kansas City, ready to start his new job as the night news anchor for WDAF TV, but he’s more interested in talking about his hometown.

“I only really get a chance to come home about a week a year, and it’s almost painful, to be honest,” said McGonigle during a phone interview last weekend. He grew up with his four siblings in Mattapoisett, the son of Dr. John McGonigle, a dermatologist that everyone in town knew. “I come back with my family now, and you realize how spoiled we were growing up as kids. We were in a rowboat, rowing around the harbor, and my sixteen-year-old was like, ‘This must have been an amazing place to grow up.’”

McGonigle’s dad was known in town for his little practice in the village near Center School. He was a popular figure for his wonderful bedside manner, but not for his driving skills, so it was inevitable every couple of years or so that the family vehicle would wind up getting pulled over by the Mattapoisett police.

“Every time he’d get pulled over, they’d come up to the window,” he said, “and it’d be ‘Oh, Dr. McGonigle! You’re all set, have a good day.’ We used to joke, where do we get the Dr. McGonigle license?”

Dr. McGonigle passed away in 2010, and mother Margaret died last summer, but Pat says he will never lose touch with his local roots, which have been transplanted many times as he’s pursued a long, winding career as a TV news personality.

He got his start on the public access airwaves of “Bay 8,” hosting a sports trivia call-in show while still in high school.

“I so vividly recall the feeling of going on Bay 8, being on live TV, taking phone calls,” he said. “It was a rush! I’d be lying if I said I knew then, ‘Oh, this is what I want to do.’ But it was definitely my first taste of it.”

After graduating from the University of St. Louis, he decided to pursue a career as a broadcaster, which took him all over America – from Maine, to Omaha, to Grand Rapids, to Rochester, New York. Then onto a breakthrough job in St. Louis as a popular morning anchor, and now to his new challenge as the night news lead in Kansas City.

With his wife, changing cities comes with the headaches you’d expect, especially with juggling the responsibility of five daughters (and dog Harvey).

But it’s the adjustment on air to a new market that might be most challenging.

“Everyone hates the new guy,” says McGonigle, whose affable manner would seem to render him pretty much unhateable. “It’s just a fact. No one likes the new guy. ‘Hey, who’s this guy? I miss the old guy.’”

“My theory is just keep your head down, don’t do anything flashy, just work hard,” he says. “I think I’d describe myself as hard-working and willing to make myself the punch line. That’s something that’s a real easy trick. If you make yourself the punch line, let people know you’re not above it all, people like that, it endears you to people.”

McGonigle feels like he’s got a pretty sweet gig – he’s famous, “but not famous where people want to spend the day with you or stalk you,” and likes being able to interact with people both on TV and in the field.

“When I was young, I met (Boston TV legend) Bob Neumeier, and he made sure I had a cool experience. He talked to me just like a regular person, and I never forgot that. It’s a little gift you can give.”

He’s looking forward to making new connections in Kansas City, and says while his girls were upset when they learned they’d be moving (again), they are excited about the chance to reinvent themselves and make new friends.

But they’ve all expressed some envy of their dad’s idyllic upbringing.

“We were watching Stand By Me, and the girls were like, ‘Is this what life was like for you when you were little?’ And you know, that’s the 1950s! But they picture Mattapoisett as this perfect fantasyland.”

“I guess in a way, it was.”