. . . is dire. It is in fact so dire that although I have movies and photos of Vashti and of the last hen and her brood of nine, I am not mentally prepared to put them up, as they evoke bad memories and deep sadness. (As you may recall, both broods left the pond, almost certainly because they were harassed by drakes.) Vashti came back and re-nested in her old nest (!); she’s now sitting on a brood of seven eggs. The second hen, who was never named, has also returned but hasn’t (yet) nested, but is accompanied by an aggressive drake.
I have been keeping a careful eye on what is going on in the pond, and I’m quite worried about Vashti, whose brood is set to hatch within two weeks. Once a day I call her down to the pond for a feeding and a bath. She stays for about 15 minutes, gobbling up a big meal, preening for a while, and then quickly flying back to her nest to incubate the eggs. But over the past week or so, the damn drakes have been chasing her when they see her, driving her out of the pond, quacking and hiding nearby. It is only with considerable effort that I can get her away from the drakes so she can eat and go back to her nest. Note that the drakes aren’t trying to attack her; they want to mate with her. And she doesn’t want to mate!
What this means is that when she finally comes down with ducklings, she and her brood will be mercilessly harassed, just like the last hen and her brood. And that means that in all likelihood they will flee the pond, which means certain death for the ducklings.
I thus have a hard choice: let them come to the pond and take their chances, or arrange for the brood (and mother, if all possible) to be captured and either taken to a distant body of water or to a wildlife rehab facility. The first alternative is unpalatable, as it involves the death of the entire brood, but I think it’s likely if I don’t intervene. Lately I have been moving towards to the second alternative: letting Facilities and the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors take over and recover everyone if they can. Getting the ducklings is relatively easy, though they’ll be in the water very quickly after they jump. But getting Mom is a job for pros, as she can fly away.
My priority is to save lives, not entertain the University community with the sight of ducklings—ducklings who won’t last on the Pond more than a day or two.
It’s always been a great joy for me to help rear the babies up to fledging, but compared to the loss of lives, that is a selfish attitude. I think I will go by the words of Maimonides, “If you save one life, it is as if you saved the world entire.” To me that means that I could save an entire life for each duckling rescued. It’s a hard decision and a sad one, but if the goal is to save lives, the strategy is clear.
The good news is that all five turtles put in the pond last fall survived the winter. Here they are sunning on a rock yesterday. There are four red-eared sliders and one yellow-bellied slider—two subspecies of a single species.
“Note that the drakes aren’t trying to attack her; they want to mate with her. And she doesn’t want to mate!”
So in the wild, will the drakes typically will kill any brood that they didn’t sire, and at that point the female will go into estrus and the drake will mate with her? And then does the drake “guard” his female and chase off rival males, allowing her to tend to her brood? Or does the female and her brood just have to find a pond with no drakes?
I would suggest using AI here; I don’t know what happens in the wild. All I know is that this kind of attack has been very, every rare in previous years.
Love the turtles, but the duck situation not so much. What a mess, and the stress only multiplies given that babies are on their way.
Because the wild world is so rife with tragedy, we have decided not to give our yard bunnies names anymore. It’s too distressing when something inevitably happens to them. Three-year-old Stripey—who turned up one day a few weeks ago with a dislocated leg or hip—hung on for a few days and then disappeared, presumed dead. It was sad. New bunnies have arrived to take her place, however, and we’re endeavoring not to name them. One of the bunnies—all of them Eastern Cottontails—has a distinctive white ring around its eyes, offering several obvious naming opportunities. The bunny remains nameless, although we are occasionally tempted to call him “Nameless.”
Elaine said it best: “I told you the Drake was bad. I hate the Drake!”
HAHAHAHA. Hate the Drake!
Killer.
D.A.
NYC 🗽
A hard choice but I think you’ve made (or almost made) the right choice, Jerry. I know this is a stupid question but there’s no way to drive off the awful drakes? Obviously no or you would be considering it. So sorry you won’t get to help rear fledglings this year.
I asked AI about getting rid of the wild drakes. It gave several suggestions that follow, but most would also chase off the hens. I did wonder if people spent a couple days at the pond chasing the drakes away if they would leave for good.
From AI:
Wild mallards and wood ducks are protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, meaning you cannot trap, kill, or harm them without a permit. You must rely on habitat modification and deterrents:
Stop Feeding: Never feed wild ducks or leave feed near the water.
Scare Them Off: Consistently chase them away when they land. In Illinois, scaring devices (such as approaching them on foot) or loud noises are encouraged before nests become established.
Use Decoys: Place floating Predator Decoys (like alligators or owls) in and around the pond, but move them frequently so the ducks do not get used to them.
Install Motion-Activated Sprinklers: Devices like the ScareCrow Motion-Activated Sprinkler will detect movement and fire a harmless jet of water to deter the birds from landing.
I’m really sad that things went sideways at Botany Pond this year. Seeing how happy you were helping foster the ducks was a large of my enjoyment watching the duck families develop and fledge. If looking after the ducks is causing you depression due to some ducks’ instinctual behaviour then you must step back sometimes for the reasons you stated. Everyone of us who follows the adventures at the Pond over the years has good memories and likely feels closer to nature because of it.
PCC(E): I don’t have children in large part b/c I never wanted the emotional liability of them – nor the decades of disappointment.
Rather, I had a cat and (now) a dog.
Unlike ducks – which are lovely, don’t get me wrong – with dogs and cats you can pretty much control the risk parameters.
I know you travel a lot, but it might be worth considering (again).
respectfully,
D.A.
NYC 🗽
I saw a “powered” (?) squirt gun at Walmart that appeared to to shoot a long way, in other words, a sort of water cannon. Shoot the drakes and drive them away! Might work, and does not appear to violate any game laws.
I suppose it might help. Unfortunately, social media being what it is, the optics would look bad.
Every day the ducklings live is a good day. If you can help make that happen by rehoming the little ones, well, sometimes second best is the best we can do. And didn’t humans become part of nature’s evolutionary machine tens of thousands of years ago? My cats and dogs are pretty sure we did, or so they tell me when they want a head rub or food. Good luck.
It took a long time to establish your duck diplomacy, and then it became really popular, with a totally refurbished pond with a DuckCam and a Duck Rescue Squad. And then came the bachelor ducks disrupting everything.
So sorry that this is now happening with your beloved ducks.
I’m sorry, Jerry.
You have a couple of weeks; maybe you can try scaring off the drakes, using some of the methods suggested above? If that fails, rehoming the family does seem best.
You might be successful in getting a refuge to accept one brood of ducklings, the ones on the way, but I have my doubts they will want to do this by the dozen ad infinitum. Mallards aren’t endangered — far from it — and if the birds are healthy and uninjured they should be left in the wild. The problem is that the cute ducklings will mature into non-cute adult birds half of them drakes and then start to proliferate. The refuge won’t want to inherit Botany Pond’s problem if the ducks don’t fly off when fledged and just stay put bumming free food and harassing hens.
For the future, if you stop feeding any ducks that show up, then they’ll get the message and not stay in the Pond to mate, and find better habitat somewhere more duck-y. Then you will have far fewer lives to be responsible for saving, or to be bereft about when they disappear. Better for the species, too.
I know you don’t want to see them starve, eaten, or run over by cars. Better that they never get born then, if the habitat can’t support them, no?