Unbeknownst to me, one member of Team Duck has been religiously walking to the pond every day, hoping to see a mallard. Since Esther and her babies left, though, we haven’t seen one. This morning our Team Duck member called me excitedly and reported that there was a hen mallard on the pond! I immediately grabbed my bag of duck food (still at the ready) and ran downstairs to the pond.
Sure enough, a lone hen was swimming in the middle of the pond. (They’ve also taken the plants out of the cages and distributed them throughout the pond, so it looks much nicer.) The bird, being wild, was skittish, and when I tossed it food (and whistled), it was a bit scared. But soon enough it discovered that what I was throwing was good stuff, and she began eating. I whistled all along to get her used to an association between my whistle and food, which is how I always call our broods. It’s pretty clear that this duck is not one of “ours”, i.e. one of Esther’s brood or Esther herself (her beak is also different from that of Esther).
She won’t come close to us—yet, but it’s amazing how much difference a single duck makes in the appearance and attraction of Botany Pond. Three people showed up, and all of them looked at our visitor (one took a photo). I’m hoping that this is the beginning of many ducks who will stop by the pond for a drink and a nosh during the Fall migration.
Here she is. I’ll check later this afternoon to see if she’s still there, and, if so, I’ll give her another snack.
When you feed a stray cat, it adopts you as its new servant and comes back for more. Is that also the case with ducks?
Often!
Great! That’s the plan! Hope it works.
One of my daughters is a trainee veterinary nurse and yesterday they had two ducks brought in as patients. Contrary to my suggestion that they were suffering from flat feet (sorry!) it turns out that they had lumps on their feet (bumblefoot?) and were sent home with waterproof wrappings on their feet to keep them dry.
Very interesting! I have not heard of bumblefoot.
Me neither until yesterday! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumblefoot_(infection)
Sure there is – there’s a mallard-shaped hole in every empty pond, right?
😁🦆
LOL
To the Duckmobile, Batman!
🙂
D.A.
NYC
One’s a bird…
One’s a mammal…
Hmmmm…. 🤔
😁
Robin?
That first photo is just so pretty.
Very interesting! I have not heard of bumblefoot.
Nice! Hope there’s more. 🦆🦆🦆
She’s a beauty!
Apparently, Richard Kleinknecht’s picture of the bullfrog eating a bird had an outsized impact on me, since my first thought on hearing there’s a duck in the pond was, “I hope they’re keeping the bullfrogs out.”
Glad to see this after a long day.