Duck flew away and came back

JessicaDotta

Songster
Oct 27, 2020
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I saw there were other posts about ducks flying away. I was so thankful for what was poted, that I thought I'd add my story to this collection.

I have six ducks (four Mallards and two Pekins). They are six months old. They are very shy about leaving their poultry cage, as I have a fox in the area. I keep one on my concrete back porch ( for easy cleaning and for nighttime stays) and the other welded cage is in the yard, so they get pasture time. I hand-carry them between cages when I'm switching them.

Well, today, I left a female Mallard to be carried last. As usual, I kept the cage door open while I carried the fifth duck to the yard cage.
When I was about halfway between the cages, the Mallard flew out of a cage, over a hundred-foot walnut tree, and out of sight. I figured she'd turn around and come back in about five minutes, but she didn't.

I checked the posts here, to see what other people have experienced.

I kept checking my yard every hour, not sure if I'd ever see her again.

Finally, around dusk, I went outside to coop up my chickens for the night. (My ducks had already been moved back to their safe night pen.) One of the ducks in the pen quacked as loudly as she could at me. And she wouldn't stop. Quacking in this manner usually means something is wrong. I looked around for the fox but didn't see anything. I cooped up the chickens, but that duck would not stop quacking. So I walked over to talk to her and make sure she had food and water. She did. She still wouldn't stop quacking. So I did another check. Camouflaged in my compost pile (which is primarily straw and duck poop) was my missing Mallard.

She waited until dusk to come home, likely for safety. (There is a huge pond/lake next door, where I suspect she went). I would have missed her because she wasn't giving me any indication that she was there. So, I guess if you have a duck fly away, my advice would be to check really carefully for that duck over the next few hours and days, especially at night. My Mallard was completely camouflaged. It was only the flashing of her eyes that I noticed.
 
She was testing the waters so to speak. She will get brave again maybe a bunch of times,. Eventually she won't come back, at least not to live there.
I wondered whether she was testing it out myself. There is a huge pond (or a small lake) on my neighbor's property. I'm guessing she went there and had the best swim of her life. It's so large, I couldn't see if she was there.
 
I wondered whether she was testing it out myself. There is a huge pond (or a small lake) on my neighbor's property. I'm guessing she went there and had the best swim of her life. It's so large, I couldn't see if she was there.
We raised a drake mallard a bunch of years ago, he lived with our Khaki Campbells. He would fly around the yard and follow us around when late September he did a normal flight when we were putting them away for the night and he was gone for 3 days. He acted weird for a couple days, I think he scared himself and couldn't find his way back. A few weeks later he flew off, it was sad but I wanted him to live wild. He comes back every spring with a mate and breeds in the flooded pool cover. This year the pool is going to be gone which will suck, we'll miss him.
 

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