It’s time for another report on the ducks of Botany Pond. (No turtle report today, but we now have six after two new ones were put into the Pond.)
The Brood of Four, having hatched on July 18 and entered the Pond the next day, are thriving, as you can see below. They have turned into miniatures of Miss Duck, though a bit smaller and lacking their flight feathers. But they are vigorous, healthy, and have good appetites. They have been on the water six weeks and two days, and should be making the first tentative efforts at flight within two weeks. Miss Duck is doing well, too, and is as attentive as always, though she allows her brood somewhat more independence than before (they often swim all over the pond without alarming her.)
Look at these lovely “ducklings” (click photos to enlarge them, and also enlarge the video):
All the photos and the video below were made at the end of August. Here’s a duckling looking happy. It doesn’t yet know that it will soon be flying.
Often Miss Duck and the brood repair to the edge of the pond for a nap after a meal. Here she is alone, waiting for the ducklings to join her. People love to watch the ducks, as you can see below. Sometimes I have to tell people not to get too close to the resting mallards lest they disturb the naps.
Very often now Miss Duck and her brood engage in zooming after a meal. It looks as if they’re having fun, and they may well be, but I think this is also preparation for flight. Miss Duck often leads the way, flying in a short hop in front of her brood. They zoom along towards her, flapping their growing but still ineffectual wings. Listen for the “quack” in this two-minute video, and be sure to watch the whole thing, as it shows dunking, flying, and zooming.
. . . and a few action shots of Miss Duck splashing in the water and preening:
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Preening:
Preening in focus:
Soon they will be flying, and perhaps flying away, and I’ll feel like a parent whose kid has gone off to college. I will be, literally, an empty nester.
Always interesting see the ducks!
Wonderful! I like the last preening picture.
Hey! Maybe it does! And maybe that’s why it’s happy. Only god knows what the duck does or doesn’t know 🙂
Indeed; I’m just guessing here.
I stumbled on a “Your Dinosaurs are Wrong” video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfG3g3dDLlk
In it, Steven Bellettini talks about the many aspects of dinosaurs evolving into birds – and one of those involves the “ground / up” hypothesis, and some of the evidence is the behavior of birds as they grow – which reminded me of Botany Pond Zoomies!
Yay, Zoomies!!
They’re on their way!
You’re not a total empty nester. You’re like a parent whose kids go away to college and then come back home for the summer. Maybe not the same kids, but kids nevertheless.
Also, the empty nest isn’t a total bummer if you have a house- or pond-full of pesky teenagers. Maybe Miss Duck isn’t trying to provoke the brood to practice flying so much as she’s trying to get a single blessed minute to herself.
If she wanted to do that she could fly away for an hour or so, as she used to do when the brood was younger. Also, soon she’ll lose her ability to fly for a few weeks as she molts her flight feathers.
O to be a young duck with the zoomies in a safe, cool pond!