I have a passel of new duckling photos and videos that I’ll post soon. In the meantime, I wanted to show how much the “babies” have grown. The first picture of Miss Duck’s brood was taken on the second day after hatching, July 20. You’ve seen this before:
And here they are in a similar pose a week ago (Sept. 6). They’re even bigger than than this now, and their wings and flight feathers have grown. I think they’ll be flying in some way within ten days.
And no, Miss Duck has not shown up after she abandoned her babies. We’ve rescinded her award of Best Duck Mother of All Time, though the orphan babies are doing very well.
Nice! Interesting that they are doing well without their mother. Have they started flying? Will they stay at the pond or will they disperse? Will they never see their mother again? Do Mallards retain family ties to their mothers and grandmothers?
(I’m not demanding answers, just expressing the questions that come to mind.)
The greatest gift we can give to our children (ducks) is roots and wings.
A toast to a great duck dad.
Great! Was worried for them. But it looks like they’ve done well. Hope they go on to do their bit for the world. The constitution does not explicitly bar ducks from standing for POTUS, does it? Maybe the lower bound for age might be a problem.
Awesome! Great to see them growing up!
They’re practically grown up! Great that they’re managing!
One of these mornings you’re gonna rise up singing
You’ll spread your wings and you’ll take to the sky
But ’til that morning, there’s nothin’ can harm you
With your daddy Jerry standin’ by
Perhaps one could study the survival and reproductive success rates of ducks left on their own shortly before being able to fly and those kept longer under a mother’s care.
What I don’t understand is what Miss Duck gained from leaving.
Gorgeous speculums!
IIRC, others have previously mentioned the possibility that Miss Duck was taken out by predators? Otherwise, deterministically speaking, she had no choice but to “abandon” them.