Honey and Frank are still with us, and eating heartily. But I’m of course worried what will happen when I leave for several weeks on Friday. Will there be ducklings? Will they suffer because I can’t feed or help protect them? Well, it can’t be helped, but I’ll still be nervous.
Yesterday the pair got two hearty meals, and I received in the mail another two pounds of mealworms in the vain hope that someone would feed them in my absence.
Here they are waddling toward me for breakfast, having just exited the pond. Frankc constantly makes little gutteral noises, but no full-fledged quacks. Honey has been silent lately.
Ever the gentleman, Sir Francis stands guard over Honey while she eats, looking around and occasionally taking a nibble of corn. The absence of a brown patch on his chest has convinced me that he’s the offspring of a hybridization between a wild mallard and a domestic duck:
A formal portrait of Frank:
And one of Honey:
I’m so glad for you that your Honey duck came back to you, and with a boyfriend as a bonus. It seems to me that Honey has always been special to you.
But what has happened to Trixie and Norton? Are they staying away because of Honey and Sir Frances Drake?
I think they were either driven away or, more likely, left. They had been at the pond on and off, then disappeared, and that’s when Frank and Honey showed up.
Maybe there is a wild life center or Audubon branch in the area who would check on and feed the duck pair? I can’t believe that there is nobody who will take on that delicious “chore”. If I lived in the area, I would be honored & delighted….
That’s a good idea. I’m sure a donation to one of the animal charities would do the trick. And they could share the responsibility too so it wouldn’t all fall on one person.
If you want to insure they have ducklings you should send them to a duck fertility doctor. Just make sure he’s not a quack.
😜
Nice photos of the Chicago family. I find you can never have enough animal pictures.
love the photos
Any chance of having them banded, so you don’t have to worry about who’s who next year?
Gutteral noise vs. quack: I remember when I heard a crow do something other than caw for the first time – that was very weird.
In that case I was told the caw is the “I see you” and they ordinarily remain otherwise silent when around large animals like humans. Not sure if that’s so or not though.
Looks like Honey has three toes on each foot!
I love the new serial installment: Ducklog. Well, we know you won’t be logging soon…hope someone will pick up the slack. This is when you want the peeps to get on the lawn.
I see no snow anymore, so I believe they will cope.