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.
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.
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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment