When a Duck Nests on Your Greenroof

Abstract:

When a curious waterfowl discovers a green roof, the possibilities are endless. Located atop Gannon University’s Nash Library and Student Learning Commons, is a 4-year-old green roof. On May 23rd 2021, a nesting mallard was discovered during a routine clean out of the plant beds. With green rooves bringing nature closer than ever, a mother mallard chose the area three stories high with no water source as her nest site. The nest, built only 3 ft away from the large window, resulted in almost no privacy. Normally nesting mallards choose a site low to the ground, near large water sources and containing multiple hiding places, making this mallard an anomaly. Through the use of video equipment and close observations from the library staff (daily) and researchers (2:00pm- 4:00pm nearly every afternoon) until June 20th, granted the ability to closely monitor the behaviors of the mallard. There were also questions early on about the safety of the young being so high up and without water, which eventually led to the decision to aid in their removal from the roof only one day after hatching (with a big help from W.I.N.). While the mallard’s subtle but various behaviors were a primary focus, the idea that animals would make use of a green roof as habitat is significant and not well documented.