i live at the beach in the summer and i have an all white runner and a magpie and i was wondering if i let them free range and have access to the watter will they still stick around
i don't have too much experience with ducks, but i've always heard that as long as you keep feeding them, they'll stick around.
I don't know where you live but around here we can lose adult birds to large snapping turtles on some of the lakes. Do any of your neighbors bring dogs to the lake? Pets can easily kill ducks on land and the way they move can bring out a predator response that often surprises their owners.
They may. I live by a 550 acre public lake, and even since I was a child when we first moved I wanted ducks but living in a condo it wasn't going to happen. I have always been a duck person and had nursed several ducks and geese back to health. So this past year I hatched a few eggs and the ducklings stayed about week in my house and then they moved to my friend's house who lives in a rural area. Once they had full plumage, it was time to release them back into the lake by my house. I was unsure they would make it, but we only lost one (who died of illness and she was had health problems from the start), but the other have survived their first winter and I doing awesome. So I say they might. Feeding them regularly always helps. Like with my ducks, they go where they please but they always come back.
