In lieu of Reader’s Wildlife today, I present Katie Peck and her brood of ten (all still alive and thriving). Happy Mother’s Day!
With Gregory, sitting on the brood (you can see one tiny head beneath her). This was two days ago when it was chilly, and she was keeping them warm and protected:
One lone duckling:
And some of its siblings:
The family having lunch on Friday:
This was a revelation. I did not know that fathers keep their ducklings warm. Happy father’s day too.
“With Gregory, sitting on the brood (you can see one tiny head beneath her).”
Is this a typo? The one duckling visible to me is under Katie Peck. I don’t think that Gregory is warming the chicks. I think he’s guarding his family and playing the proud papa.
If the duckling were under Gregory, there wouldn’t be a comma. It’s not a typo. Gregory is of course not warming the chicks–that’s Katie’s job. He is always nearby being protective.
My apologies. I wish I could use the fact that I hadn’t yet had coffee as an excuse for the oversight, but I think that even after coffee, I would have misread the sentence.
Are we sure Katie isn’t actually Honey? I see a few similarities in the bill pattern, at least in the videos. Not enough to make me believe she’s Honey, but enough to make less sure that she’s another duck.
-Ryan
No, she’s definitely not Honey. Her bill markings are completely different, and she’s far shyer than Honey is. Honey showed up earlier in the season at the same time as Katie.
I see the similarities too, but it could be one of Honey’s daughters. Still, I wish I knew how much a hen’s bill markings might fade from sitting on her eggs day in and day out, with narry a morsel to eat.
Note the comma after “Gregory”.
Lovely! But I wonder where Honey went. I hope she’s okay.
Me too! And I can’t help but wonder if all those drakes who constantly invade the pond are Honey’s offspring from last year.
Could Katie be Honey’s daughter? I wonder how Gregory and Katie found this pond.
She could be, and I often wonder. But short of DNA testing (I have some of Honey’s molted feathers) or banding the young ducks, I don’t see how I’ll ever know.
I sense a future “23andMe” variant on the “Your horse has diabetes” story about an American beer.
Don’t some parts of the biology curriculum require students to do their own lab work on DNA testing, which you can hijack with some feathers?
What a nice family. Thanks for the ducky updates.