Wild mallards visit and mingle with my Khakis

[Carcajou]

About 3 PM today I looked out the window at the pond to see what my six Khaki Campbells were up to. The first thing I saw were a mallard drake and two mallard ducks working the far edge of the pond. I quickly grabbed a camera and took a bunch of photos through the window. The visitors were generally accepted though it was made clear that they were not welcome in the shallow ingress/egress area of the pond where I sometimes put corn and feed in the water (to keep it away from the blue jays) for my ducks to feed on. This was evidenced by the fact the visitors were politely escorted from that area a number of times. Interestingly enough, my drake Khaki paid little to no attention to the visitors - it was my girls who established the local pecking order. All in all it was a pleasure to watch them all together. Mother Nature is great!

Our guests




Matilda paddles over to say, "Quello"


Hey, he's smaller than we are, let's give a chase!




My Buffy, Flighty my drake, and the drake mallard


Our pond is your pond (though I wonder if they might overstay their welcome). It will be interesting to see what type of flurry ensues if the mallards are still there when I go out to put my flock inside the fence for feeding time later today.

 

[ducksinarow]

Lovely. I wish I had a pond my ducks could share with its wild cousins.

 

[Carcajou]

I am eternally blessed to have a spring-fed pond that doesn't freeze in the winter. It certainly makes duck management much easier.

 

[Miss Lydia]

As always lovely pics. Makes me think of spring, I actually saw "our" 2 mated Canada's to day in the river below our home first time they have been here since last fall, just hope this year they get to have and raise goslings, last 2 yrs flooding caused her to lose her next and eggs.

 

[Carcajou]

ML, pulling for your geese to raise a brood this year!

 

[Amiga]

Terrific report, Carcajou, thanks for the photo's, too.

 

[Carcajou]

Thanks, and your welcome. I do like to take pictures.

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

Those pics are really neat Carcajou! So what happened when it was time for your ducks to go in?

 

[Carcajou]

Glad you enjoyed the photos. The mallards were gone when I went out to tend my Khakis.

 

[Miss Lydia]

ML, pulling for your geese to raise a brood this year!

Thanks Carcajou, I feel like they are ours since 2X they stopped here for a bit of feed when we had an unusually frigid spring, and stuck around most of the morning before they flew back down to the river, It was so interesting to see how my flock watched them, they were on the outside of the fence the flock on the inside not making a peep just watching. That's so neat you get to have wild ducks come into the pond for a visit, ever had any stick around to nest.