Wild mama and babies

[BelovedBirds]

Boy do I have a story to tell! Stick with me, its a long one!
Well today wasn't what I expected. Down to check and feed the ducks and I see out of control dogs jumping in the water near them, adult men laughing and trying to grab the babies, all sorts.

I couldn't take that, so after giving a few looks that could kill, I pushed the rescue team to do something. They were reluctant to, but bf and I offered our help and they later that day sent a couple people out.
We went to their aid immediately, it was socks and shoes off, in the river, game time

Well, ultimately we weren't able to get mama and with the state of stress she was in, unwilling to abandon her babies, they ultimately decided not to take the babies without her. (I did argue their case, face to face with the people, that if she's going to lose them regardless, it's better to be cruel to be kind, but I could understand their dilemma with how distressed mum was).
It wasn't my call to make but I did what I could.

That said, we were able to catch the ducklings, worked with my bf to get the first, I held onto her and helped to herd mum while they got the other. She was so tiny in my hands, but I remembered how I held Dougie and Sprightly when I wanted them to be still and sleep, and it worked perfectly to calm this one, no wiggling pretty much instantly. Its very public so we were surrounded by a crowd which only made mum more flighty. We had many people asking us to stop, I took the opportunity to be loud and educate them. Held her for a while while they got the cage, put them in and carried them up stream.

Kept stopping to make sure mum followed, and she did, scared us a few times by flying extremely high and far but came back in a loop everything yelling at us (understandable).
We managed to get halfway up the river, to a wider deeper part with more land and grassy mounds. It wasn't ideal as they still can't get out of the river, due to man made sides.

However, it's got more bugs, more fish, more plants to hide in. Less dogs too.

Eventually they let the ducklings out into this section and mum returned to them immediately, she adores her babies. The team left but not before I discussed making some steps for them to get out of the river (allowing them to travel to quieter areas, more natural cover. And allowing them to move up the stream easier.)

With their thanks and encouragement, we got to work until way past sunset. Unfortunately two drakes found her and chased her so that she flew out of the river leaving her babies behind, and fleeing for her life. They were so aggressively going for her, but I ran in between them and swatted my hat at the drakes and kept on their backs until they left for good.

We managed to herd them further up stream, to a very quiet area. We built steps there, so the ducklings should be able to climb out but at least have a place to rest out of the water.
It did involve wading into the river and carrying big slabs of rock, but its worth it!

 

[notabitail]

Boy do I have a story to tell! Stick with me, its a long one!
Well today wasn't what I expected. Down to check and feed the ducks and I see out of control dogs jumping in the water near them, adult men laughing and trying to grab the babies, all sorts.

I couldn't take that, so after giving a few looks that could kill, I pushed the rescue team to do something. They were reluctant to, but bf and I offered our help and they later that day sent a couple people out.
We went to their aid immediately, it was socks and shoes off, in the river, game time

Well, ultimately we weren't able to get mama and with the state of stress she was in, unwilling to abandon her babies, they ultimately decided not to take the babies without her. (I did argue their case, face to face with the people, that if she's going to lose them regardless, it's better to be cruel to be kind, but I could understand their dilemma with how distressed mum was).
It wasn't my call to make but I did what I could.

That said, we were able to catch the ducklings, worked with my bf to get the first, I held onto her and helped to herd mum while they got the other. She was so tiny in my hands, but I remembered how I held Dougie and Sprightly when I wanted them to be still and sleep, and it worked perfectly to calm this one, no wiggling pretty much instantly. Its very public so we were surrounded by a crowd which only made mum more flighty. We had many people asking us to stop, I took the opportunity to be loud and educate them. Held her for a while while they got the cage, put them in and carried them up stream.

Kept stopping to make sure mum followed, and she did, scared us a few times by flying extremely high and far but came back in a loop everything yelling at us (understandable).
We managed to get halfway up the river, to a wider deeper part with more land and grassy mounds. It wasn't ideal as they still can't get out of the river, due to man made sides.

However, it's got more bugs, more fish, more plants to hide in. Less dogs too.

Eventually they let the ducklings out into this section and mum returned to them immediately, she adores her babies. The team left but not before I discussed making some steps for them to get out of the river (allowing them to travel to quieter areas, more natural cover. And allowing them to move up the stream easier.)

With their thanks and encouragement, we got to work until way past sunset. Unfortunately two drakes found her and chased her so that she flew out of the river leaving her babies behind, and fleeing for her life. They were so aggressively going for her, but I ran in between them and swatted my hat at the drakes and kept on their backs until they left for good.

We managed to herd them further up stream, to a very quiet area. We built steps there, so the ducklings should be able to climb out but at least have a place to rest out of the water.
It did involve wading into the river and carrying big slabs of rock, but its worth it!

Glad they're ok.

Those humans harassing those ducks need a hard punch.

 

[BelovedBirds]

Regardless of whether they survive (odds are still against them), I will keep feeding them and I will be harassing the council to built better steps for the ducks. It's ridiculous how something they claim to be natural works directly against nature. I will not let this happen to other ducks in the future.

Here is a photo of where she was, vs where we moved her
It's the best I could do for them, the steps (not in photo) allow them to go up into the bushes on that side.

 

[BelovedBirds]

Glad they're ok.

Those humans harassing those ducks need a hard punch.

I'm sure they felt my glare burning them.

 

[notabitail]

I'm sure they felt my glare burning them.

Good. Hopefully they reconsider their life choices too.

 

[BelovedBirds]

Oh, I've said a lot, but side note- after the stresses of separation they are *glued* to mama now. She used to let them wonder off several metres but now she is on them constantly talking to them and keeping them close to her.
Apparently losing babies to predators didn't do that, but this has gotten a big lesson through to them.

 

[Miss Lydia]

@BelovedBirds you are a hero in my book. That new place looks so much better. Hopefully now they will be safer and not have idiots trying to harass them and turn their dogs on them. I agree they needed quite a few times.

 

[BelovedBirds]

Wow has she learned some big lessons!
Both babies are still going strong but it's hard to figure that out when she's hiding most of the day now! She's avoiding people at all costs, and that means she's also avoiding basically all seagulls, dogs, keeping her babies close and away from most of the rats, sparrow hawks, and even the two drakes that hover around there at times. She's able to get them out safely onto the bank and hide under the plants, she spends a lot of her day in there with small trips onto the river.

I think we gave her such a big scare, she was desperately wanting her babies back and when she got them back safe and sound, her whole attitude changed.

Hope it stays this way for them... they may have a shot at surviving if so

 

[Miss Lydia]

That’s great news and hopefully she’ll pick a much safer area to hatch ducklings next year.

 

[BelovedBirds]

Separate drama today...
Went to our local duck ponds for a relaxing day. First thing we see is 9 ducklings all under a week old, getting attacked by other ducks and geese. And where's mum? Absolutely no where to be found. We observe them for about 30 minutes swimming in circles together, scattering off at times, no mama anywhere, all hens were biting and chasing them off. They were swimming around in circles on this lake, all alone. Heart wrenching. Tiny babies.

So we call the rescue, and they suggested calling the RSPCA. So we went ahead and did that, finally got through to a person and the woman ignorantly tells us that ducklings are independent right after hatch and don't need mum.
We roll our eyes and turn around, and it's non other than one of the women who helped last time. She recognises us and we're so happy to see eachother. She said she heard about it and came to see. She's followed by another volunteer, and then 3 more volunteers!


Now this is a *lake* and these ducklings are flighty. By now it's been a good while with no sign of mama returning. We are confident she is dead, considering the busy roads, and very many predators. Not to mention there being more drakes than hens.
They bring the big big nets and a carrier and we help them.

Sigh, peas and sweetcorn was a nope all around so we ran to get some bread and we lured them into a corner- long story short, we got 2, and then another 2 with the nets.
But the remaining 5 took off beyond where we could get them. It took hours getting 4, and the rest were gone for the evening.


I consider it a success, but we have been encouraged with permission to attempt to catch the remaining 5 by ourselves tomorrow. And if they are still there by evening more volunteers should be available to get them.

Alas, we are getting up at 5 am, have readied my own massive net, and carrier, and wish us luck!

I'm not convinced they're going to survive the night, but we are sure going to try and help if they're still there tomorrow. I can sleep peacefully knowing about half of them are safe, warm and protected until big enough for release, they'll be at their foster home by now

There is another situation but both we and the rescue decided not to worry too madly about it, as nature has found a bizarre solution.
An older larger duckling, more than a couple weeks old, was also orphaned, however was following a female duck about and being looked after- just by a juvenile female. She seems to have just left her brood, and she's taken the baby under her wing quite literally. They were very close together, that baby is being kept warm at least. There was another juvenile female who was also with them a lot, so I suppose this little one is slightly better off. I would've liked it taken as well, but nature is going to be harsh at times and it does seem to have found a strange help for this one.
Wish us luck for tomorrow