All 27 ducklings are still cohabiting in Botany Pond and thriving. And the Secret Duck Farmer (SDF) has reported the first incident of ducklings flying. Naturally they are in Katie’s brood, the first to hatch (in early May), so it took them about two months to fledge. The SDF’s report:
I was on my way back from the library, I really didn’t have time to stop, but I was worried about the effect some nearby workmen setting up for summer building repairs would have, so I decided I’d walk through. Katie’s brood is definitely taking small short flights. It seems like all 10 are present and accounted for, but they have definitely taken flight. So far the flights were just from one point of the pond to another point in the pond. I didn’t have my phone with me so I did not capture video.
Here are videos from Saturday; you can see even here they had little short hops/flights. But today [Monday] was the real thing.
In the second video, I think you can even make out one “duckling” taking off a bit, or at least making a little hop out of the water. This looks like practice for takeoff.
Some pictures of Katie’s brood (the ducks above):
Here are two photos, one is just Katie and one of her ducklings, where you can see they are identical in size and really it’s only her wing feathers and her general presence which allows me to tell them apart. She still carefully watches over her babies.
The other is a photo of one of her ducklings with crossed wing feathers not quite as long as moms.
The middle brood (Anna’s):
Here are some photos of Anna’s brood from Friday – Sunday, you can see their wing and tail feathers coming in and them looking very big, happy and healthy.
And as for Daphne (the newest mom):
Not to leave her out, but we do have a lot of images of her and the brood, but here they are near the duck ramp. They do venture to different parts of the pond and even onto the islands, but she often keeps her brood on or near the duck ramp. She spends much less time in the lily pads with her brood than did Anna’s brood at the same age. It’s fascinating to watch them mother differently.
The fourth and apparently broodless hen still visits the pond and eats food left over from the ducklings, but the three resident moms tend to chase her away. I don’t think she’s going to give us a fourth brood, and I don’t want one!
To sum up, here are the latest pictures from the SDF and a report, all from Monday:
I captured photos of each hen with their brood so that you can be reassured that despite territorial squabbles, everyone is present and accounted for. The mystery hen was back as well, but she looks much the same so I didn’t take her photo and she flew away after being chased by each of the moms in succession. I also took an extra close up of some of Anna’s ducklings because the feather growth is quite amazing and they are at that ugly but cute stage.
Katie’s brood:
Anna’s brood:
Daphne’s brood:
In two days or so I’ll post video of the ducklings’ first flight.
If you get anymore groups someone will need to number these guys. In my walk around the waters at this place I saw three different groups today. One with about 8 young was very close but no camera.
It’s cool to see them “learning” to fly.
Meantime, I’m minding my own brood of one … one black swallowtail caterpillar on a dill plant. 🙂 I successfully germinated tons of dill seeds and am waiting for more swallowtails to come and do their business. The milkweeds are going gangbusters this year too.
I wonder if the shy mother duck is Phoebe who stuck to Honey like glue last year, after the others fledged and left.
Yes, I often wonder about that. Sometimes I fancy that she looks like Phoebe. .
It will be interesting to see what Katie does if all of her brood flies off. Will she take to trying to mother some of the remaining ducklings,fly off to escape the crowd?
Good question. She has to molt, so she won’t be able to fly for at least a month or more from now.
Up up and away (?)!