I've checked all of the "houses" we have in the duck pen, checked under her favorite pine tree near the duck pen, all the dog's houses and even in an old rabbit hutch that my husband has out in the woods but nothing. I've been out calling until I almost have no voice left, even went out rattling the bag of peas with no luck. Her favorite roosting place is on top of the chicken yard fence, we built it with a wide rail on top and she just loves to roost up there in the daytime and do some sunning. I walked the whole pasture and most of our wooded areas (32 acres of woods) and no feathers, no Scooter. The last couple of days before she left she had been dancing around with her wings out slightly and raised just a wee bit above her body while singing and and wagging her tail like mad, she wasn't doing the head bobbing dance but she did seem to be trying to get the Drake's attention which makes me wonder if she's needing some loving. Our weather was horribly cold with snow (more than usual for us) but for the past week it's been raining like crazy and fairly mild temps. There were two days over a week ago that our temps were below zero with ice everywhere and I kept my ducks all in the pen on fresh dry hay with no playing in the pasture or pond and Scooter was mad at me for that but got over her anger once the ice thawed and I let them all out again. We have a tight circle of trees beside the pond with lots of undergrowth in it, I crawled in there yesterday to see if perhaps she was hiding on a nest but she wasn't. I had brought a small dog carrier out to the duck pen last week to put my molting Pekin into at night because the mallard girls were pulling her feathers out during the night...well in the daytime Scooter was going into that dog carrier and singing like crazy, not her normal singing and I got excited thinking hmmms he might be getting broody. Scooter is my first and only Muscovy so I don't know if this new way of behaving meant she was randy or getting broody...I just know that she was acting differently from her norm. She was still eating right, swimming ( of course she doesn't stay in the water as much as my other ducks do), she was still letting me pick her up and snuggle her, still came running to me when she saw me.
Does her behavior mean anything to you other Scovie owners?
Michelle
