Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Yes, ’tis true: I’ve run out of readers’ photographs and there will be no more such posts until I get some good photos.
In the meantime, have a photo of one of last spring’s ducklings, all grown up and zooming around on Botany Pond, learning to take off and fly:
Spring is coming!
Unbeknownst to me, the powers that be in our department decided to celebrate my creation of the Jerry Coyne/Honey the Duck Graduate Fellowship (a grad-student fellowship for studying organismal evolutionary biology) by putting pictures and captions on the wall of our seminar room, which features other photos of research activities of department members. Here are two photos related to the JCHDGF over the blackboard:
And enlargement of the photos:
And the two captions that go with the photos (first one for the left photo, second for the right).
I was delighted to see this, for the photos and fellowship will be the only real form of immortality I have. Like all scientists, I realize that whatever research I produced will eventually be outmoded or replaced. And Honey will live at most a dozen years; in fact, she’s probably already crossed the Rainbow Bridge. But my fellowship is forever.
Kudos to the office staff for getting this made and installed.
And two other photos of Honey, just for old times’ sake:
. . . and with one of her broods:
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.
Today I’m assembling photos from readers who sent in a small number. Their captions are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them. I’m assuming all ducks are mallards (Anas platyrhynchos).
DUCKS from Peter Fisher:
I came across this family of ducks in a rather lovely setting in Rydal Water in the English Lake District. Mum is clearly keeping watch. There were six ducklings, (one must have escaped the frame).
From Christopher Moss:
Some more for your stash. I received the 2x teleconverter today, so these were taken with the full frame equivalent of a 1200mm lens! I need to practice some more with it, as it is prone to camera shake, but there is promise there.
Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata), Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) and a damselfly (probably an Eastern Red Damsel, Amphiagrion saucium)
From Richard Kleinknecht:
THE HUNGRY AMERICAN BULLFROG (Lithobates catesbeianus)
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife writes (click here)
“Adult American bullfrogs have voracious appetites and will eat anything they can fit into their mouths, including invertebrates, birds, bats, rodents, frogs, newts, lizards, snakes, and turtles. Bullfrog tadpoles mainly eat algae, aquatic plant material, and invertebrates, but they will also eat the tadpoles of other frog species. As a result of these feeding behaviors, all life stages of bullfrogs prey upon and are able to out-compete native frogs and other aquatic species. Additionally, bullfrogs are a known carrier of chytrid fungus, which causes the potentially fatal skin disease in frogs called chytridiomycosis. Chytridomycosis is believed to be a leading cause of the decline of native amphibian populations all over the world and responsible for the extinction of over 100 species since the 1970s.”.
Apparently, the American bullfrog will, or will try to, eat anything that won’t eat it first. My extended family member, Eleanor, knew that bullfrogs had exterminated her singing chorus frogs, (genus Pseudacris, multiple species) and was not terribly surprised when she came upon this bullfrog attempting to swallow a pre-deceased adult bird, one that ultimately proved to be too large for consumption – but the frog came very close to swallowing something nearly as large as itself!
From Sharon Diehl:
Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) pair atop Transform Tower #199, Wally Toevs Pond, Walden Wildlife Habitat, Boulder, Colorado. I have photographed this mated pair for years at Walden Wildlife Habitat, where they hang out atop the transform towers that overlook Wally Toevs Pond. They aren’t always successful breeders, but they keep at it, together year after year.
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) hunting at my backyard bird feeders–where, alas, it caught a bird–at least it was a Starling. I know the raptors have to eat, too:
Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens), on the Hornbeam tree I believe, waiting for the flicker to leave the suet feeder–my backyard, Boulder, Colorado.
Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) in a tree, overlooking a lake in East Boulder Community Park, Boulder Colorado.
. . . and more DUCKS from reader A. C. Harper:
Two ducks making the most of pondweed on water at Fairhaven near the Norfolk Broads. Pictures taken on holiday at South Walsham July 2025.
First, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! Ducks, particularly very young ones, should not be fed bread, except as a very occasional treat. This was one of those occasions.
Yesterday I was down at the lake with a friend, Alice Dreger, attempting to go swimming off Promontory Point, one of the most beautiful locations in Chicago. (You may have read Alice’s books, including Galileo’s Middle Finger.)
But the water was too cold for us (about 60°F; see the penultimate paragraph of Alice’s bio), so we had a picnic instead. After we’d finished eating, a family of MALLARDS swam by. There was a mother and five of her offspring, identifiable to generation by size and feather color. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a mallard—not a single one has even stopped by Botany Pond—and I was delighted.
I was even more delighted when the group climbed up on the rocks where we were sitting. I had called and whistled to them, but it was too much to hope that this was Esther and her brood. Still, they were very tame.
Then I realized that I still had some bread left: half a baguette. Although Facilities and I prevent visitors to Botany Pond from feeding bread to ducks, as it can cause abnormal development of the wings of ducklings, I also knew that an occasional bit of bread won’t hurt them, and these wild mallards surely weren’t given much bread. So I fed them, and they were HUNGRY.
Alice took some photos. Here’s one on its tippy-toes reaching for a morsel of baguette.
I was SO happy (and so were the mallards)!
Alice took a short video of the feeding (seagulls tried to intrude, but the ducks drove them away). After the bread was gone, the mallards lay down at our feet for a rest. They were remarkably tame, and it was soothing to relax while the duck family relaxed a few feet away. All I can say is that it was a great afternoon and, as lagniappe, I slept like a log last night–for the first time in at least two months. I think this calls for a new form of therapy: CDT-I: Cognitive Duck Therapy for Insomnia. Who isn’t delighted and calmed by ducks?
We almost had another brood in Botany Pond: a hen several blocks away showed up with a brood of about nine ducklings, and though I was in Iceland, the stalwart members of Team Duck tried to shoo them into Botany Pond where they’d be safe (there were people to feed them). Sadly, they got all messed up trying to get through a hedge, and Team Duck, along with Facilities and the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, all on the scene, couldn’t get the mother and brood together to herd. Seven of the ducklings were rescued and taken to rehab, but mom and two babies stayed in the bush, and disappeared overnight.
This is part of the sadness attendant on duck-tending. But at least most of that brood will be okay (they’ll supposedly get surrogate moms), and we did fledge Esther’s six ducklings, which flew the coop after I was overseas. In memory of Esther and her brood, then, here are what I think are the three best photos from the last duck season. We needed more broods!
First, Esther and her seven (remember, one disappeared the first night) only a few minutes after they hit the water. You may recall that she was our first hen to incubate her eggs on the grounds—the usual behavior of mallards. Facilities put a plastic fence around her nest to keep interlopers away.
Esther was an excellent mother.
A marching duckling from that brood, a bit older:
And my favorite photo of the season, “Smiling splashing duckling” (yes, this is one of the babies all grown up):
I couldn’t resist putting up this 2.25-minute video, as it convinced me that the two ducklings who disappeared on July 4 actually flew away and didn’t waddle off or were taken by predators.
This was filmed yesterday after Esther and her remaining four ducklings had a light lunch (they eat less now because they’re dabbling). And after lunch is play/swim/flap/dunk/dive/fly time. This video shows considerable proficiency in flying, which begings about 13 seconds in and involves every mallard. Note the U-turn at 18 seconds.
Be sure to watch all the way until the end, because another bout of flying, again involving all five, begins at 1:25.
They are clearly ready to fledge, and I’m told that they do so at roughly 50-60 days after hatching. May 7 (the day the brood hit the water) until July 4 is 58 days.