ducklover128
Songster
- Nov 3, 2022
- 147
- 220
- 126
2 ducks went missing, and we thought the female was nesting, and the male was with her. Their 2 buddies, came up and seemed kinda panicky, but they have always been stand-offish and do not like humans, so we didn't really think to much of it. We went walking in the creek, looking for them. We haven't seen anything in a few days of either one, so we started worrying. We accidentally walked up on a pile of white feathers last night. 
That WAS our female Pekin, petunia...the only thing left was 4 different piles of feathers in 4 different places, but all close to each other, and one wing bone. We didn't see anything of the male, little Doug, a khaki Campbell. So at daylight, we went back looking for him. We found a pile of feathers about 20 feet up creek from petunia. I know they are his. I've tried googling, but it's not telling me anything I need to know. Do y'all know what would eat everything except one whole wing bone and feathers? No bill, no feet, no other bones. Just some feathers. And all of little Doug's feathers were not there. Just some real light brown ones, and a few small white ones. It looked like whatever it was , caught petunia where we found the largest amount of feathers, but I really don't know. We have all kinds of predators here, in the middle of NC. Bears, hawks, minks, otters, raccoons, possums, wolves, coyotes, foxes, hawks, bobcats, and I saw a chocolate panther once, and an eagle once...any idea what it could've been? We think maybe the ducks were up creek when it got em. Have no idea what time of day. Any info or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. We were thinking maybe a raccoon, or possibly a mink or otter, but still not sure. We have been hearing coyotes really close to the house, around the time they went missing. I've cried since we found petunias feathers, and I just wanna know what to hunt down.
That WAS our female Pekin, petunia...the only thing left was 4 different piles of feathers in 4 different places, but all close to each other, and one wing bone. We didn't see anything of the male, little Doug, a khaki Campbell. So at daylight, we went back looking for him. We found a pile of feathers about 20 feet up creek from petunia. I know they are his. I've tried googling, but it's not telling me anything I need to know. Do y'all know what would eat everything except one whole wing bone and feathers? No bill, no feet, no other bones. Just some feathers. And all of little Doug's feathers were not there. Just some real light brown ones, and a few small white ones. It looked like whatever it was , caught petunia where we found the largest amount of feathers, but I really don't know. We have all kinds of predators here, in the middle of NC. Bears, hawks, minks, otters, raccoons, possums, wolves, coyotes, foxes, hawks, bobcats, and I saw a chocolate panther once, and an eagle once...any idea what it could've been? We think maybe the ducks were up creek when it got em. Have no idea what time of day. Any info or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. We were thinking maybe a raccoon, or possibly a mink or otter, but still not sure. We have been hearing coyotes really close to the house, around the time they went missing. I've cried since we found petunias feathers, and I just wanna know what to hunt down.
bad...I don't want anything to die, and I don't wanna kill anything. I won't even kill a spider, I take them outside. But I can't have something killing my family. It's 10pm here, and we are going outside to work more on getting everything moved around and securing everything to keep my babies safe. How my 2 ducks felt, how horrible it must've been, how terrified they were, just keeps running through my head. Even after the the mess the mom and 9 babies make in the master closet, I can't put them outside until I know they will be super safe. I just wanna bring all of them inside, but it's not possible. Which makes me sad, but the ones have literally destroyed the closet. 
