Mama duck on Mother's Day

[rosemarythyme]

Not technically "our" ducks, but wanted to share since I managed to get photos - Happy Mother's Day!

Ran into our resident mama mallard duck this morning when we went to feed the chickens. We have a roughly 1 acre pond that we leave completely wild, so many different birds stop by, including ducks in spring and fall. We get at least 1 batch of ducklings hatched in the yard each year. This mama originally had 7 babies, but only 2 are left at this time. She also picked up a drake companion at some point (there were quite a lot of drakes in the pond this year). The babies start off learning to swim in the pond for a couple of weeks, but once they get bigger mama walks them over to the creek each day.

Crossing the yard just behind the chicken run (not in photo):


Up the gravel path by the creek (chicken run is immediately to the left):


Thinking of jumping in:


Enjoying a patch of weeds:

 

[Miss Lydia]

I bet you have snapping turtles in your pond they are very fond of duckling. Thanks for sharing the pics they are adorable!

 

[Isaac 0]

Gorgeous ducks! Nothing better than seeing momma with her ducklings.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I bet you have snapping turtles in your pond they are very fond of duckling. Thanks for sharing the pics they are adorable!

No turtles, but we do have bullfrogs. Though sadly I think the other ducklings may have been done in by the drakes fighting over the hen, as I have not seen any other females hanging around here this year. There was quite a lot of scuffling around the time when the ducklings made their pond debut.

 

[Isaac 0]

Any bass?

 

[rosemarythyme]

Any bass?

The pond was supposedly stocked at one point, but we don't know with what (other than the darn bullfrogs - someone was selling them to French restaurants). It's very overgrown now. Someone from the county came by and said it looks like ideal wildlife habitat so leave it alone, so we haven't touched it.