After a day’s disappearance from the pond, Honey returned yesterday and ate a huge breakfast of corn (my mealworms arrived yesterday afternoon, so she hasn’t yet had any). She was asleep at teatime so I didn’t feed her.
This morning she’s gone again. I wonder if she’s flying about now, and then returning to the pond for assured noms. Since I don’t have a photo from today or yesterday, here’s a photo I took on June 28, showing her brood of three drakes and one hen. They’ve long since taken off, but you can see (rear duck) that at that time Honey hadn’t yet molted as she has her long wing feathers.
Perhaps a colleague can help affix a homing beacon or something to Honey or offer an explanation for her disappearances?
They are available, but require skill to fit (and probably a license).
Ringing which can be read from a distance is probably longer lasting, but that too requires trapping and handing. I’m taking PCC’s silence on that front to mean that he’s decided against trying it. PCC is confident that he’ll recognise the beak marks next year, which is sufficient for him.
It could be that you are just being led alone. It has happened before.
You mean “led along”? Yes, I’ve pondered that she’s being fickle with me. Still, I’ve bonded with her, and have learned, in the hours I’ve spent with this duck, how marvelously adapted mallards are in their role as waterbirds.
Yes, I screwed that one up quite well with one letter. I blame it on the female.
Funny, I don’t usually think of Chicago, that toddlin’ town, as having a “teatime.” But, then, my impressions of Chi-town have been formed visiting my brother there, which usually involves blues bars and the Billy Goat, hard drinkin’ and hell-raisin’ (or used to anyway, until we suddenly turned into old farts. So maybe teatime’s about right. My bad for stereotyping.)
Well, I feed her twice a day: about 7 a.m. and 3 p.m., and 3 p.m. is closer to British “teatime” than it is to American “dinner.”
Don’t mind me, boss; I’m just yammering away, caught up in the revelries of youth. 🙂
… reveries of the revelries of youth.
Our local pond – about 30 acres of swamp – has very few mallards this year compared to past seasons. Interestingly, there are about 30 wood ducks now including adults and young. Species must take turns dominating.
Perhaps she’s doing some practice sorties, of a sort, to get fit and ready for a possible winter migration. She might have found some other feathered friends but likes to come back to you for the free food, and perhaps to check up on you, eh… make sure you’re doin’ OK.