Category: ducks

The golden days of the ducklings: photos and videos

September 14, 2026 • 9:45 am

I expect the ducklings to start flying within ten days or so, as they’re zooming around on the pond and, as you can see below, are getting some elevation, so that their bodies are out of the water but their feet are still in it. These are their Golden Days, and I think they’ll soon be leaving.

At any rate, Miss Duck is still absent and I don’t expect to see her again. I doubt she was the victim of a predator, as I cannot find any signs of predation (blood, feathers, carcasses, etc.) near the pond.  And although she deserted her babies, she was a good mother up to near the end, and her four offspring will have the chance to contribute to the mallard gene pool.

Here she is with one of her babies. Look at that neck! We think of it as a kind of periscope that she extended when looking around. And, thanks to the miracle of genetics, all four ducklings also have relatively long necks.

Some photos of her offspring. They are all but adults now.  One is looking up, as you can see by his tilted head.  I’m told that the females have orange on their bills (the two to the left) while the males lack orange but have a pale yellow color (two to the right):

Here a Boy Duck is quacking, but males can’t make the classic duck quack, which is limited to females. Males make a sort of gutteral quack-grunt that is lower in volume:

The two males. They won’t develop their characteristic color and pattern (green head, white neck ring, etc.) until they overwinter.

But despite their bad behavior during mating season, the males are still beautiful.

It was hot on this day, and two of the ducks are doing gular fluttering, which is not panting but a rapid form of fluttering of the throat that evaporates moisture and cools the bird. The second duck from the right is looking up, while the one on the extreme left is sleeping with its nictitating membrane closed:

Lately the ducklings aren’t as keen for the food I give them, and my theory (which is mine) is that they are doing more dabbling in the water, sticking their bills in the substrate to get a mouthful of food which they strain out through the serrations on the edge of their bills. They are also foraging more on land, which I like because tmust learn to be wild ducks without a nice man to feed them.

They often stick their bills in the dirt around the pots of plants installed in the pond. Here’s a video of them doing it (humans are discussing a book in the background):

I expect that they’ll fly for real (i.e., bodies and feet out of the water) within a week or ten days.  They are flapping their wings a lot and, after meals, zoom across the pond, occasionally levitating their bodies out of the water: a Wright-Brothers type of flight.

Here’s a big flap. You can see that the wing feathers aren’t full-sized.

And four instances of zooming between September 9 and September 11. You can see their bodies leave the water occasionally:

Wing flapping, which develops their flight muscles:

You can never predict when they’ll zoom, but it’s much more likely after meals, as if they’re celebrating a good feed. You can also hear a quack, which is clearly from a female.

Here’s a good case of the zoomies which took place last Friday. People who stop by the pond and see this have no idea what’s going on. Keep watching as they zoom several times in this clip. There is another quack near the end.

How they’ve grown!

September 13, 2026 • 11:00 am

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.

Readers’ wildlife photos

September 12, 2026 • 8:45 am

Please send in your wildlife photos as this is the last batch I have!

Today we have bird photos from Jan Malik showing avian denizens in the “wilds” of New Jersey. Jan’s IDs and descriptions are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them. Note the DUCKS at the beginning and in the penultimate photo.

I’d like to present my natural backyard, the Meadowlands in New Jersey. This is an expanse of tidal marshes and phragmites reeds, formerly used as city dumps. It was more or less that desolate swath of land where Pete Clemenza instructed his enforcer: “Leave the gun, take the cannoli.” Nowadays, this land is in the process of active reclamation and on its way to becoming aquatic parkland.

In spring and summer, DeKorte Park is teeming with ducks; here are a male and a female Green-winged Teal (Anas carolinensis):

There is a large flock of Ruddy Ducks (Oxyura jamaicensis) that stays each year in the same cove:

Every year, many Northern Shovelers (Spatula clypeata) visit the marshes. Their bills certainly look like spatulas:

American Black Ducks (Anas rubripes) also move through the area and possibly even breed in more secluded areas. They are close cousins of Mallards, and hybridization occurs fairly often (as evidenced by the green brow on this male); however, the species manage to stay separate due to their selection of nesting sites and preferred diets:

There are too many wading birds to list, but here is a Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus):

And a Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes):

Midges and mosquitoes can sometimes be a nuisance:

But we have an efficient pest control crew, like this Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor):

Large wading birds are numerous; here is a Great Egret (Ardea alba).

A strong local colony of Ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) has a prominent presence here. As long as nesting platforms are available and polychlorinated hydrocarbons are absent, these birds will thrive:

Among songbirds, we have native sparrows, like this White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis):

As well as introduced ones, like this male House Sparrow (Passer domesticus), which has taken up residence in an all-American nesting box:

We have too many songbirds to show them all, but as a final one, here is an American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis):

Every summer, we have our crop of youngsters, like these American Robin (Turdus migratorius) chicks:

Or these ducklings—I think they may be Black Ducks, not Mallards:

I’ve realized now that I have collected too many bird pictures from this region and have short-changed all our lovely mammals, insects, turtles, shellfish, and fish—the latter, sadly, largely inaccessible to a photographer. But I would be remiss if I didn’t include this view, which has been visible on this specific September day for the last 25 years. The World Trade Center site’s light beam tribute is visible across the Hudson, and its aesthetic quality must not cloud our understanding of what it means: that on one sunny September morning in 2001, we were deprived of Francis Fukuyama’s comfortable utopia of universalism and thrown into Samuel Huntington’s world, where others look at our treasured values with disdain and a desire to destroy them:

Miss Duck has left the pond

September 7, 2026 • 11:35 am

For reasons I don’t understand, Miss Duck left Botany Pond three days ago and has not returned. There are no signs of a predator attack, and my best guess is that she just felt it was time for her to leave. Unfortunately, she leaves behind the brood of four, who seem quite discombobulated without their mom around. The only good part is that they’re seven weeks and one day old, and will be flying on their own very soon.

The brood hangs around together as they have all along, but seem aimless, and their appetite is definitely down. I am not too worried, but I do feed them as much as they can handle and I talk to them as they do know my voice. (I learned today they can recognize it over the telephone.)

I don’t know if I’ll ever see Miss Duck again, but she proved to be somewhat of a worse mother than we thought. Maybe she’ll return next spring; if she does she’ll get a stiff lecture (but after a big meal). I have some duck pictures left to post, but that will be later. For the time being, here is Miss Duck (when she was on the Pond):

New Botany Pond videos and photos, featuring Miss Duck and her Brood of Four

September 1, 2026 • 8:30 am

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.

PCC(E)’s wildlife photos and videos: Duck update

August 28, 2026 • 8:30 am

The “ducklings”—if you can call them that now that they’re fully feathered and miniature adults—are almost six weeks old: they hatched on July 25 and came to the pond the next day. All is well with them: they all seem healthy and lively, and they eat heartily, though Miss Duck allows the babies to eat before she does. It’s hard to get food to her as her brood tends to scarf it up.

The babies are already starting to flap their wings vigorously, as you can see in the videos below, and I expect that in about 2-3 weeks they’ll be trying to fly, and levitating a bit. I suspect that the “zooming” behavior you see below is both fun but also practice for taking off.

But first some photos. First, Miss Duck, the ever-attentive mom who is still monitoring the babies closely. She’a also starting to molt, and during this period she will be able to flap and levitate a bit, but when she molts her flight feathers she’ll be pretty much grounded for a couple of weeks.

First, Miss Duck on the water. I love this photo, what with the reflection and all. (I posted it the other day.)

On the edge of the pond, watching her brood. Notice that her foot is on the side and not underneath her:

And a glamour head shot. If she returns next year I’ll be able to recognize her by this distinctive beak pattern.

Here’s the brood crossing the sidewalk in the morning so I can feed them in the channel. As soon as they plop in the water (I won’t feed them on land), they immediately turn and face me, waiting for their duck pellets. They know the drill!

Make way for ducklings!  You can see that Mom is still larger:

Sleeping on the water six days ago (iPhone photo). Mom is floating:

Often Miss Duck and the brood will get the “zoomies” after a meal. Usually initiated by Miss Duck taking off and flying a short distance in the pond, the ducklings go wild, zooming across the pond at high speed chasing Mom, as well as dunking themselves and swimming underwater. I’m convinced that, with Mom’s prompting, this behavior prepares them for flight. Notice how they often flap their wings during the exercise.

I’ll show two bouts. This first one took place after third breakfast a week ago (they get fed three times a day):

And here’s a vigorous case of the soomies yesterday:

The babies also “dabble” after meals. In the wild, they get most of their food by going butt-side up and thrusting their beak into the pond bottom, taking in some mud and then squeezing out the dirt but keeping the edible stuff (worms, other inverts, etc.). As I’ve shown before, ducks have “teeth”: serrations on their bill that allow them to get rid of the inedible stuff and keeping the food. In this way they’re like baleen whales.

Since the pond bottom is gravel and not dirt (a huge mistake in the pond design), the dabbling takes place in the dirt in the few pots of plants that they’ve put in the pond, which have dirt in them. Unfortunately, the plants cannot spread because the pond bed is gravel. It’s beyond my ken why they designed the pond this way, for it will prevent the luxurious growth of aquatic grasses and water lilies we were promised when the pond was reopened.

Here’s one duckling dabbling in an empty plant pot in mid-August.  At this time they still had their duckling fuzz, but you can see the feathers coming in. Now they are fully feathered and fuzzless, but their flight feathers have a way to go.

And here’s a napping duckling with almost all the feathers grown in.  There’s still a patch of fuzz on the butt and neck.

Ducklings napping on the edge of the pond. They always do this in the full group of four, and Miss Duck is among them, usually at one end of the line so she can watch them all. The “white” covering in the eye is their nictitating membrane.

The babies are starting to develop the speculum: the patch of blue  secondary wing feathers that you can see on Miss Duck’s wing above. It is one of the landmarks of attaining adulthood.  I’ve circled the nascent speculum in the first photo. Curiously, we’re not sure what this speculum is for. It’s present in both sexes, but could be the result of mutual sexual selection or selection for species recognition.

The nascent speculum is clear here:

The brood heading to one of the three Sacred Rocks to rest after a meal. There’s lot of dunking and preening before they settle down. Notice that Miss Duck gets up on the rock to let the babies know where to go.

DANGER!  There is a nest of Cooper’s Hawks (Astur cooperii) in the quad, and the young hawks often inspect the pond. Miss Duck sees them before we do, and she warns the babies with a specific quack. They immediately become motionless. While I’ve seen the hawks fly low over the pond, they’ve never tried to take a duckling, thank Ceiling Cat.

These photos were taken three days ago by my friend Peggy Mason, a neurobiologist on Team Duck. The tree is adjacent to the Pond, but I let Peggy take a few pictures before I chased the hawk away.

The definitive ID comes from Bruce Lyon, who looked at the photos and said, “Yes I think it’s a Cooper’s. I had to double check that it was not a broad-winged hawk. Looks like it is molting its tail so it is shorter than typical and a long tail would indicate Coopers’.”

And we musn’t forget the turtles. We now have six of them. We originally had five but one died (I was told, without proof , that its shell was cracked when students were playing Frisbee with it). But then a student found a large red-eared slider on the Midway, far from the pond, and carried it over and let it jump in. That made five again. Then a smaller red-eared slider appeared, probably another willful introduction.

They are all well and many people come to watch them. A group of women who work in the Regenstein Library regularly visit, and they’ve named all the turtles after hamburger-ish sliders, like “Buffalo Chicken Wing” and “Beef”. Unlike me, they can recognize every turtle.

A few photos of our terrapins. Here are four sunning on the rocks and doing Turtle Yoga, stretching their limbs to catch the sun:

You can see why they call them red-eared sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans):

Finally, two videos showing the turtles. This first one also shows some of the seven species of fish we have in the pond. All are naturally-occurring (as are sliders and ducks), but there are four pesky goldfish that someone is going to remove and put in an aquarium.

This turtle is going after some leftover duck food, but they do get fed a healthy diet of turtle food (not by me):

This video shows how they swim around. They’re quite fast in the water when they’re in a hurry, in contrast to their slow ambling on land: