Today is Day 11 since Esther’s ducklings hit the water, and it’s time to share some photos and video of her, Mordacai (yes, he’s still here) and their brood.
But first, we were lucky enough to get a video, courtesy of an undergraduate, of the ducklings hatching underneath Esther, whose nest, you may recall, was on the ground. This video was taken on May 6, and you can see, peeping from beneath her, newly hatched ducklings. One who just hatched is still wet from the egg, while others, a bit older are dry. There were seven total, though one disappeared the first night to unknown causes. Be sure to listen to the gasps from the students as they see the babies: “Holy cow!” “Oh, my god!” (I’ve shown this video before, but put it up again because it’s lovely.)
They stay under mom for the first day, and hit the water the second day, which they took to. . . well, like ducks to water. (See the photo of their first moment in the water here.)
The remnants of Esther’s rather crude nest; you can see the broken eggshells. Despite being a rather incompetent nest-builder, she’s a great mom in the water.
Click on all photos to enlarge them.
It wasn’t long before Esther took them on a tour of the pond so they could learn the surroundings. They quickly learned to use the duck ramps so they could get out of the water and dry off in the sun. In this photo she looks proud to me, but of course that’s anthropomorphizing.
This looks like the brood of five when one duckling went missing for a day but, mirabile dictu, returned the next day. I have no idea where it was.
This video shows how they swim purposefully with the mother when Esther has decided to swim to a definite place. At other times she lollygags about and the ducklings spread out over much of the pond.
The whole family on the edge of the pond (they went up via the ramp). The faithful Mordecai is standing guard to the right.
Esther and the babies. It’s warm beneath her: I’m told about 100°F.
Mom and most of the babies napping:
Mordecai napping. He is an excellent dad, driving off alien drakes who try to make time with Esther. You can see that he’s well fed by his belly hanging over the edge. We call such individuals “Dali ducks.”
Here’s a video of the ducklings (7) discovering that there are rocks they can climb on, get some sun, and dry off.
Mother and babies:
Esther in a formal pose:
Two babies:
Ducklings looking up:
. . . and one flapping its tiny wings:
Finally, a passel of ducklings (the formal name for such a group is a “flock,” a “waddling”, or a “raft”). Needless to say, on a nice day the pond is crowded with onlookers oohing and aahing over the babies and taking pictures of them. Right now, in the absence of any turtles or fish, the ducks and ducklings are the major attraction at Botany Pond:
You mention that Esther looks proud but that you are anthropomorphizing. I do wonder about that. It’s possible that the facial expressions are homologous and that what you’re inferring is true. I wouldn’t want to claim that facial expression representing pride is the same between humans and ants (if there even is such a thing as pride in ants, which I sincerely doubt), but in vertebrates homology would not be out of the question.
Great photo/video-log of the young family!
The prejudice against anthropomorphizing in biology needs to die. If evolution favored pride in humans, it could well have favored it in ducks.
The late, great Franz de Waal called that prejudice “anthropodenial.”
Wonderful! Glad to see!
Thanks. This is a great scrapbook. I love that the well-placed flat rocks can be used both as a ramp and as a climbing gym for the youngins.
So nice that they have a beautifully laid out pond and surroundings that was advocated relentlessly for them by Prof Coyne and Team Duck.. It’s a nicer backdrop for them to be seen by admiring onlookers, and makes the University look good, too. Everybody wins.
Aw! The water looks pretty clear right now.
Lovely. Thanks.
Very nice.
Nice to see the ducks thriving in the new and improved pond. I’m relieved to hear that others are enjoying them and respecting their space. It’s the least one would expect from college-aged students except that there’ve been so many instances of students behaving badly lately, I’d begun to wonder.
Love the duck and ducklings pics.
What a lovely family! Congratulations again, Duck Daddy !
Thank you for the duck update, Jerry. It’s nice to know the ducklings are thriving. Keep up the good work.
Ducklings are so cute (even cuter than kittens, IMO). It was a daily privilege several years ago to walk to work along a stream which had a hen and her brood; seeing them in action was a great start to the day.
The little duck flapping his tiny wings is so cute.
“Dali ducks”! It took me a few seconds, but LOLOLOL!
Delightful!