In summer of 2010, I got 6 mallard ducklings for TSC. 5 females and 1 male. 4 females flew off and left me with a pair. They stayed until mid fall and then they flew away and only came around for an occasional meal. I have chickens so there was a constant food supply. This continued on through the winter and into April of 2011 when I noticed the female did not come around as much as the male. Well I discovered that she was indeed there and had built a nest in the corner of chicken enclosure. She hatched out 16 babies in mid May! It was so cute watching them follow her around and swim in our small pond. After month, I noticed that three of the ducklings had disappeared. Something was coming around at night and snatched them. Hubby's has a friend that lives up the road and wanted to put ducks on his new pond. We live in a rural area. His pond is large and has an island in the middle. This island is vegitated and has a duck house on it. We all thought this was the perfect solution. I don't have a safe place for the ducks at night and the island sounded perfect. Last Friday was round up day. All the ducklings and the momma were taken to our friends house and released on the island with food to encourage the momma to stay. Well she didn't. She left within a hour of being released. We were sure the ducks were still close by because they could not fly yet and we knew the momma would not leave them. We told our friend to be patient and they would be back. Fastforward to today, Monday, my husband is in the yard working when he hears a noise coming from the tree line. Momma duck comes marching out the woods with here 13 babies in tow!!! So, hubby herds them back into the enclosure, where they went willingly and shut the gate and then called me. That duck WALKED her babies over 1/4 mile through the woods over the course of 3 nights to return to our house. How did she remembered where to go? I find this amazing and I had to share. Well, we are going to keep the 13 ducklings until they can fly on their own, so hubby is now making some kind of enclosure so we can pen them up and night. I am truly overrun with ducks!
Wow, that's a great story! And, it's extremely rare that 13 ducklings can survive all this time with no predator protection. It's just hard for mom to keep them all warm, though warm weather certainly does help.
Thank you so much for sharing this story. It really is amazing. Not just that she kept them all safe on the return journey- but that they came home to you at all. After flying away she has returned to the place where she was raised as she feels safe there to raise her own babies. I have just yesterday received an email form a friend with a return story of her own- but no where near as heart warming or amazing as your story. I had sent a friend some eggs from my ducks to hatch last year. She only had chickens- and ducks was something very new for her. Sadly after some power failures during bad storms- a single little duckling hatched. He was named Harry and grew up with some chickens. When he was old enough to be outside he started venturing away- and when he stopped returning my friend found that he had ventured to a neighboring property where he had taken a liking to a young female duck living there. At first she would collect him and bring him home in the evenings- but in the end after talking to the owner of the duck- it was decided that Harry should be able to stay with the female that had captured his heart. He had been gone a long time- and although I have wanted to ask many a time. I have never asked about Harry for fear of hearing that he met with an unhappy end. I nearly jumped out of my chair in excitement when I read the email yesterday that Harry had come home. Sadly his lady friend has met with a sad end........ and so with nothing to keep Harry from the place where he grew up- he returned. I am promised some photos and cant wait to see how he has grown up as I havent seen a photo of him since he was just hatched. My friend has put him into a safe area and is looking for a female to keep him happy.
