Duck, duck, duck ...

Since their arrival 4 weeks ago, the ducklings have transitioned from a safe, contained area to the wide-open pond. They seem to get on well with the other ducks, and their fluffy down has turned into full-fledged feathers. I present below, a Pekin and what we think is an Indian Runner crossed with ... something:

On another note, last week we added a new duck species to our life list; here are some family members celebrating the event:

Make way for ducklings!

I recently signed on as a volunteer at Tri-State Bird Rescue, "a non-profit organization whose mission is to achieve excellence in the rehabilitation of injured, orphaned, and oiled native wild birds, with the goal of returning healthy birds to their natural environment." Today was my first hands-on working session. This morning's caseload included 214 birds and at this time, many of these are babies: birds who have become orphaned or otherwise separated from nest and parents. During my shift I took care of four groups of baby birds, mostly robins and bluejays, feeding them on a regular schedule and cleaning their pens about halfway through my shift.

During the morning meeting, the supervisor mentioned they had two domestic ducks who were ready for a home. I made her an offer she couldn't refuse: large pond, 8 domestic ducks already on premises, experience raising ducks from day-old, etc. etc. Yep, they came home with me. They're about 3 weeks old, very cute and fluffy. After a few minutes by the pond, we decided they weren't quite ready for the big wide world yet. We set up their habitat in an enclosed, shady area on the property. They have water, shelter, and about 100 square feet to wander around in.

Oh yes ... they also have a guard dog.

A week of ups and downs for our backyard wildlife

A couple months ago I wrote about one of our ducks' strange meanderings. A few weeks ago this very same duck started spending a lot of her time in the duck house. She didn't even come out for food. It turned out she was sitting on two eggs. While all of our ducks are quite enthusiastic when it comes to mating, and pretty good at producing eggs, the eggs tended to be left lying wherever they were laid: the front garden bushes, deep in the pond, along the bank, you name it. Up to now, none of the ducks seemed to have the faintest idea about nesting.

Well, this mama duck managed to master the nesting thing and on Monday, hatched two fuzzy black ducklings. It was exciting, but we were apprehensive at the same time. Would she know what to do next? Would they get enough food? Would they be warm enough?

We watched them carefully on Monday and Tuesday, bringing water and some ground duck pellets out to the duck house each day. On Wednesday, she ventured forth with her brood. A bit of drama ensued. Mama duck took the little ones out for a swim, and then proceeded to take them to one of her favorite spots for sitting: the pond's overflow grate. Her spatial relationship skills proved even more suspect than her parenting skills, as one of the ducklings fell through the grate! There was much flapping and panicked quacking, which fortunately caught Chris' attention. He realized what had happened, went into the woods behind the pond, crawled through a wet and spidery culvert, retrieved the little fella, and reunited it with mama duck (all this was even more remarkable given that Chris is all trussed up in a contraption designed to heal a broken clavicle ... but that's another story!).

All seemed well from that point. Mama took her little ones out during the day, and retired to the safety of the duck house in the early evening. On Friday night we went out to visit the little ones and enjoyed watching them splash about. But in the middle of the night, we heard a lot of panicked quacking coming from all 8 ducks. This chorus is usually reserved for really scary and threatening situations. In the morning, the ducks were all clustered together on the grate. But the ducklings were gone.

I know the deck is stacked against ducklings born this time of year, since they are unlikely to reach a suitable body weight before the weather gets cold. But they were so cute and fluffy. It's sad.

What's up, duck?

Last spring we lost several ducks to foxes, but so far this year we have been fortunate and haven't lost a one. Nonetheless, we have a daily roll call. The current "beak count" is eight: 2 pekins, 3 khaki campbells, and 3 cayugas. We may soon be down a cayuga if one keeps up the bizarre behavior demonstrated this week.

The cayugas and one of the khakis have taken to long walks, up our driveway and yes, even up to the end of our street. They've done this before when we've neglected to feed them, but that's not the case this time. They just like sitting in the grass near a house that's under construction. Maybe they're just into the builders. However, this past week Chris was out working in the pasture and could hear a faint quacking kind of sound coming from the housing development that's behind the pasture. He assumed it was the family of geese that have been hanging around our pond, because they travel back and forth between our place and another nearby pond.

Then towards evening Chris heard the same sound, this time out in front of the house. He looked out and watched a cayuga proudly strutting from the main road, down our street, and then down the driveway. The rest of the flock rushed to welcome the prodigal, and there was much quacking all around.

So it appears this crazy duck found her way to the other housing development, possibly by way of our pasture. But then it also appears she returned home via the main road, a 1/2-mile walk with traffic! A day later she disappeared for a full 24 hours, and returned by the same route.

Is someone feeding her? Does she have a secret lover? Or is she just insane? Cayugas, after all, are the same breed as Daffy Duck. We're keeping our eye on her ...

Pasture, pond, and other developments

There has been a lot of activity around our property this spring. Chris has enlarged the pasture area by clearning more -- wait for it -- multiflora rose. We have come to realize that all of the lovely, "wooded" areas of our property are covered in multiflora rose that has slowly but surely strangled & killed off many, many trees. Clearing rose and dead trees has been Chris' raison d'etre for several weeks now. The goal is to have a clear view from our house, beyond the pond, into the pasture where we will keep our two horses. Here's a what the view looked like before this project started, in winter & in summer:


Our ducks are still around, but far fewer in number. Their survival skills are not very strong, and many have fallen victim to foxes. As of this writing, the "beak count" stands at 8: 2 pekins, 3 khaki campbells, and 3 cayugas. Canada geese fare much better. Over 3 winters we've come to expect large numbers of geese for Christmas, a couple pairs in the spring, and 8-12 goslings every year. They're wonderful!

2005: Beginnings of a wildlife habitat

In 2005, we decided to introduce more "wildlife" to our property and purchased several baby ducks (pekins, cayugas, and khaki campbells). We kept them captive until they were a few months old, and then decided to release them into the pond. This was easier said than done! We naively thought that after opening their enclosure they would march in a neat parade down to the water. Instead they took off in all different directions, ending up deep in weeds and multiflora rose. One by one we extracted the ducks and carried them down to the pond. They were slightly shocked, but quickly got over it and began to enjoy their new habitat, including a wonderful duck house built by Chris.


Most of the geese that visited over Christmas left in early spring, but a couple pairs stuck around and then one day, there were families! Goslings had arrived! We have also been thrilled by visits from a blue heron, who really enjoys hanging out by the pond.