Wednesday, September 3, 2014


A Duck’s Tale

Or

The Golf Ball That Wouldn’t Hatch

 

Spring has come to stay. And along with spring is a pair of Mallards that have adopted us, or at least our ponds. They hang around, sit in the creeping stuff around the ponds, and sit in the water. The smaller pond will only hold one duck comfortably, so they each sit in their own pond and look at one other. Once in a while they will waddle over under the bird feeders and pick up whatever the smaller birds have dropped on the ground. How long they will bless us with their presence remains to be seen.

 


 

Sunday, May 25, 2014

     As I’ve mentioned we have a pair of ducks that have adopted us. They hang around in our back yard, use our three little ponds, eat our birdseed, and generally entertain us. But they’re not quite right. (Maybe that explains why they’re contented to hang out with us.) For one thing every Mallard hen in a three county area is being trailed around by a batch of ducklings. Not our hen. She laid one egg beside one of the ponds, and then promptly ignored it. The next day it was in the pond and she was eating the shell. The two have mated but either they don’t know what they’re doing or, like I said, there is something wrong with them physically, as well as mentally. Another thing they do, and I’ve seen this several times, when coming home from the small lake on the fifteenth fairway out from our house, is walk. It’s probably sixty-yards and they just walk--like it was not far enough to bother flying. Of course they are probably so overweight from all the birdseed that it takes too much energy to
fly. Anyway, they are a strange pair.

     They pretty much ignore me as I work around in the back yard.

 
 
 
 
Monday, June 2, 2014
          This is an update on our duck couple. Well, they’re not a couple any more. The drake has fled the scene. The hen has chosen her nest site well. Unless you know where to look and what you’re looking for she is nearly invisible.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

     She’s put together this nest at the end of our property on top of a retaining wall and under a neighbor’s bush. It’s very well done and she’s hard to spot.

    

 See the nest? I told you she was good.

One day when she was taking a break, I looked in the nest and sure enough she was sitting on a batch of eggs. How many I couldn’t tell without disturbing the down and other stuff she has pulled together to help cover her eggs.

After she had been on the nest for about a week I put some bird seed on top of the block wall about 12 inches in front her. She jumped up and moved about two feet away from the nest, but no farther.

Then about a week later I put more seed in the same spot. She rose up a little but did not move off the nest. Today I put some more seed in the same place and she just sat there staring at me with a look in her beady eyes that said, “So what took you so long, you’re a half day late, and where were you this weekend? Do you expect me to take care of this place and hatch these eggs all by myself, huh?

 

 
     Now you’ve got to admit that’s a long speech for a pair of beady duck eyes.

 Monday, June 16, 2014

     Well, our Mallard hen is still on the nest. The available information says she should sit on the nest for 28 – 30 days so we have a little time to go yet. I don’t know exactly when she laid those eggs, but it was close to the first mention of her and the nest in this journal, which was June 2.

 Monday, June 23, 2014

     Today the eggs hatched and we had, for a short time, six little ducklings hanging out with their mother. We watched on and off throughout the day to see where they would go. At one point it looked like the mother was trying to push them off the block wall into our yard, which is about a five-foot drop. The kids weren’t cooperating.

Later in the day they were all gone. The neighbor spotted a family over on the lake and after we scrutinized them through his scope, decided that it certainly could be our duck family.

     When the mother duck and the ducklings were still hanging around the nest I tried to take some photos of the family. Whenever I got close enough the chicks would try to crawl under their mother. It was interesting as they seemed to think that if they got their heads under her no one could see them.

     As the day went on, and before she left for the lake, she spent more time wandering around the area close to her nest with her brood following along in a jerky sort of way. One of the times she was away from the nest I looked and found that she had also been sitting on a golf ball as well as her eggs. The golf ball didn’t hatch.

 

 

     Now we’ll have to wait and see if she brings the ducklings back to visit.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

     Today the hen came back to our yard several times. Her brood is now down to four ducklings. She showed them the food under the bird feeders, and our safe little ponds. They were pretty much on the go all day, between our yard and the lake. They spent a lot of time on the fairway between the two places, with the chicks running hither and yon with only one break that we saw, and that was when it was raining fairly hard. During the rain the hen was sitting beside one of our ponds with all four chicks under her. It seems that the down covering the ducklings is not really waterproof and will get wet and that wetness can be detrimental to the health of the duckling. So the hen knows what she’s doing.

Friday, June 27, 2014

     Yesterday I watched as the hen brought her four ducklings over to the yard. They came under the big gate, then under the hedge into our yard. Between the time the brood came under the gate and when they came out from under the hedge (about three feet) one of the ducklings went missing. They were out of sight for about twenty seconds. The hen just came on as if nothing had happened and jumped into our middle pond with the remaining three.

I went out and looked around the gate/hedge area but found no sign of the fourth ducklings--no ducklings, no down, and no duckling parts scattered around, nothing. There had been some jays hanging around the gate/hedge area, so I’ll have to do some research and see if jays will take a duckling. (I didn’t find anything about jays killing ducklings. Maybe somebody out there could comment on this.)

     As this duck family waddles hither and yon two of the ducklings stick relatively close to the mother. However, the third one ranges far afield, seeming to have a mind of its own. This one will probably be the next one to get snatched.

     The hen is bringing them into the yard to eat birdseed and use our ponds five or six times a day. And each time she seems to be spending more time here.

Saturday, June 28, 2014

     Today I was sitting on the deck reading when the mother duck and her three offspring came waddling across the fairway, under the gate, and across our back yard to the bird feeding station. When they finished stuffing themselves they played around in the ponds for a bit. Then the mother and two ducklings left and were on their way back to the fairway and the lake, I assume. One duckling was still in our pond. He, or maybe it’s a she, got more and more frantic, swimming back and forth and jumping up on the lower rocks.

Finally it climbed all the way out of the pond and up onto the ground cover, stretched its neck up as far as it could, and started peeping very loudly, at least for such a small thing. The mother, who was thirty-feet away by this time,  immediately turned around and came back to the fence closest to where the duckling was, quacking loudly all the way. The little duck went over to and through the fence, rejoining the family. Then they all moved back toward the fairway. It seemed that until the little duck started peeping, the mother had no idea that one of her kids was missing. Maybe ducks can’t count. Whodathought?

Another interesting thing--when the mother realized her kid had been left behind she did not return using the route they always take, which is under the gate, (the only place the hen can get through the fence when walking), under the hedge, and into our yard. She came directly to the opposite side of the fence from the little duck, obviously knowing that it could get through the fence (woven wire) without going over to the end of the yard and crawling under the gate. (This gate is an access point for the golf course maintenance people and leads from the course to a paved road running alongside our property and out to the street.)

Wednesday, July 1, 2014

     Yesterday the hen was back in the yard, but with only two of her ducklings. Today she is back and still with only two kids. At this rate she will run out of ducklings before long. Life is tough for a duck.

 
Monday, July 7, 2014

     The mother duck came in a couple times today with her two ducklings. They ate and swam around the ponds and seemed to enjoy themselves. It is interesting to watch how nervous the hen gets when the two kids want to go someplace she doesn’t have on her schedule. Example: She was eating birdseed and the two left her and went over to the ponds. She was eating as fast as she could, all the time trying to watch what the kids were doing. The kids are growing up, changing color, and getting some real feathers. 

Thursday, July 10, 2014

     This morning the hen was eating birdseed. I looked around but saw no ducklings. When she was finished eating, she jumped in the smallest pond, drank some water, dipped her head in a few times, they flew over the fence to the lake. That's right, flew. 

     Only a couple conclusions come to mind. She feels comfortable leaving the ducklings over in the lake while she comes over and gets something to eat. Or the ducklings have come to an untimely end. Or it was another duck altogether.

     We will give this situation a couple more days before concluding this duck tale has come to an end.

Friday, July 11, 2014

     This morning Lorraine came dashing into the office and said that I needed to come and look. I did so and what did she have to show me? The mother duck was waddling her way down the ridge, toward our back yard with two ducklings in tow.




 
     So the first or third conclusions from yesterday must have been the right ones. I can’t believe that the duck that came in yesterday was not the mother. She just seemed too familiar with the birdseed and the little ponds to not be our mother duck. So our duck’s tale continues.

 

 
 Sunday, July 13, 2014

     The ducklings are growing up. They are getting some feathers.
 
Sunday, July 19, 2014

     The two ducklings are still with us. The mother brings them over at least once a day for birdseed and to play in our ponds. They continue to grow. This morning instead of going directly from the ponds over to the fence and out on the fairway, they all traipsed completely around the house to get to the same place. What that was all about I have no idea. The ducklings are getting bigger each day.




 
Monday, July 28, 2014
     Today our family ducks came over from the lake and ate their fill and had a drink in the ponds, then waddled off back toward the lake. This is the first time we’ve seen them for about a week. I’m not saying they haven’t been here. Of course we’ve been gone for several days of that week. We can definitely see the difference in their size, feathers, and coloring. Mamma duck has managed to hang on to the last two ducklings so far.
 
Thursday, August 6, 2014
     This morning the two ducklings came waddling over from the lake and proceeded to feed themselves. The hen showed up later. The ducklings are getting bigger, which is to be expected. One of them is larger. I’m not sure what that means.
     Later in the day the two kids came over again and ate their fill and left. The mother never showed. After that the mother and both kids came over. When they come they walk up to the first pond, climb in, swim across, which is about two paddles, climb out, and go for the birdseed. Obviously they know that a straight line is the shortest distance between where they are and where they want to be. The fact that it takes more work to get there instead of walking around our little pond is something they haven’t figured out yet. So far I’ve seen no effort at flying or even wing flapping.
Monday, August 11, 2014
Today our threesome once again waddled over from the lake to clean up under the bird feeders. One thing happened that added a layer of mystery to this duck tale. I was sitting in my office working, very diligently (it surprised us all), when I looked out and noticed a mother duck and two offspring coming our way. They were headed for the gate under which our three crawl to gain access to our backyard. I grabbed the camera and went out onto the deck to get a current picture of our loyal threesome. As I was waiting for them to get under the gate and through the hedge I looked around and found that there were already a mother duck and two offspring slurping up our goodies. OKAY, I thought. What’s going on here? We have noticed occasionally a second female duck hanging around our three birdseed-addicted ducks and even going as far as helping herself to our birding station’s off-fall. So now we are wondering--does she also have two ducklings? And is she trying to introduce them to some easy pickings? The first threesome I saw today didn’t actually come under the gate but followed it going away from our yard and disappeared in the golf-course rough. I guess time will tell if we have one set of welfare ducks or two.
Our ducklings are getting bigger all the time. One of them now has some blue coloring on the speculum, as you can see from the different camera angle.
 




 
Sunday, August 17, 2014

Today, like most days, the hen and two ducklings came over from the lake to partake of our largess and dip their beaks in our ponds. They are getting to the point that if they are not with their mother the adolescent ones could easily be mistaken for adults. If a person didn’t look too close or know what an adult Mallard looks like.







 



 Family heading up the ridge toward the lake.
Friday, August 22, 2014
     Today the Mallard hen brought one young duck over to fill up on birdseed. The last couple times she’s visited she has only had one kid in tow. Prior to that we’ve had the two kids here a number of times by themselves. The one adolescent she had along today had a bad limp. It’s getting harder and harder to tell which is the mother and which is the young ones as their size is pretty much the same. About the only difference now is the size of the speculum. So far we have not seen either of the young fly. Of course we’ve only seen the mother flying once since the kids came along. I’ve a feeling this ducks tale is near its end.
 

Monday, August 25, 2014
     This morning the hen showed up with two offspring in tow. And neither one of them had a limp. So either the malady cleared up since the last entry in this journal or we are being visited by two different hens, one with one adolescent duck and the other with two. Who knows? This is probably politically incorrect but all female ducks look the same to me.
     As they come across the back yard the kids cut right across the biggest pond. When getting out of this pond they now give a couple flaps of their wings to help crawl out. This is the first time I’ve seen them do anything that looks like they may have an idea of what their wings are all about. For the last several weeks the mother walks around the ponds. She may be so fat from my bird seed that she’s afraid of not being able to float. Of course, that’s just a guess on my part.
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
     Today the two adolescent ducks came over from the lake to get their fill of birdseed. One of them is limping again. So I don’t really know if we have two sets of ducks or just one set with a accident prone kid. We haven’t seen the hen now for a week. It is hard to tell who is who as all three look pretty much the same.
     I think this is about the end of the tale. We’ve had a pair of ducks mate, lay six eggs, nurture those eggs and one golf ball, and had all six eggs hatch. The hen lost four of the ducklings, but raised two until they were adults, or close to being adults as we could tell. The ducklings seem to come and go at will, sometimes with the hen and sometimes alone. We’ve not seen them fly. They obviously prefer to walk. Hopefully they have no far-reaching travel plans. It was interesting to watch the whole process. At times we wondered if we were hosting more than one family of ducks. We don’t know the answer to that. Maybe the second family was hired as stand-ins, so our hen and ducklings could take a break from being in photo mode all the time.

 
 
 
 
 
 


 
 

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