Remember our thread about our ducklings and the visiting mallards? https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=3788199#p3788199
Well for about a month we assumed they had flown away because we never saw them anymore. Since that time the "pond" in our backyard has totally dried up (happens every year in the Spring) and we thought for sure it would be another year until we saw the mallards again.
Today my girls were playing in the grassy field behind our house and they saw a female mallard flying like she was hurt. I went out to check on her and she sure was acting odd. I got the impression to be careful because there may be eggs (which surprised me because I otherwise never would have thought about it). Well, lo and behold I looked down and there was a cracked blueish egg on in the grass. I looked around a bit more and discovered this:
The empty lot where she built her nest is not duck friendly. No water, surrounded on all sides by houses in a very suburban area. It is also disced / rotatilled every year for weed abatement. Heck, for all we know she's done this every year, and every year the eggs get disced under.
We've also got a ton of coons and skunks around, so I have no idea how she's been able to stay alive, let alone keep her eggs safe.
So, what should we do (if anything)? We could just let nature take its course and run the risk of her either abandoning them or her/them being eaten by coons. If everything goes "well" she may end up hatching them, but I have no idea what she'd do with trying to raise them in an area with no water and surrounded by houses.
I'm also a little concerned that we may have spooked her and disturbed the area where she built her nest... hopefully not too much.
Thoughts?
Well for about a month we assumed they had flown away because we never saw them anymore. Since that time the "pond" in our backyard has totally dried up (happens every year in the Spring) and we thought for sure it would be another year until we saw the mallards again.
Today my girls were playing in the grassy field behind our house and they saw a female mallard flying like she was hurt. I went out to check on her and she sure was acting odd. I got the impression to be careful because there may be eggs (which surprised me because I otherwise never would have thought about it). Well, lo and behold I looked down and there was a cracked blueish egg on in the grass. I looked around a bit more and discovered this:




The empty lot where she built her nest is not duck friendly. No water, surrounded on all sides by houses in a very suburban area. It is also disced / rotatilled every year for weed abatement. Heck, for all we know she's done this every year, and every year the eggs get disced under.
We've also got a ton of coons and skunks around, so I have no idea how she's been able to stay alive, let alone keep her eggs safe.
So, what should we do (if anything)? We could just let nature take its course and run the risk of her either abandoning them or her/them being eaten by coons. If everything goes "well" she may end up hatching them, but I have no idea what she'd do with trying to raise them in an area with no water and surrounded by houses.
I'm also a little concerned that we may have spooked her and disturbed the area where she built her nest... hopefully not too much.
Thoughts?