Ouch! I am so glad i'm not a duckling. To be honest while I love ducklings i hate the mess that ducks produce but it was wonderful watching mom duck with 7 little ducklings following her everywhere (i lived in boston and would pass through the commons (public park) 7 days a week as i walked to work and well in the springs there were all sorts of ducks and ducklings. There was even a pair of female swans that laid eggs every spring. Mallard ducklings were the best.
This year was the first year in a long time that we've had the mallard back. Every year there's always a soap opera with the babies 😂 this year one of the geese families stole 6 ducklings and 2 female ducks somehow. Last year one of the goslings was raised by the ducks. I love watching them all grow up. Right now the ducklings are still tiny but the goslings are now sub adults and losing the last of their poofy head feathers.
This year a pair of very small black ducks showed up, they're very elusive I have to do my research.
We don't mow or weed whack where there's nesting- we're not allowed, there's a ton of restrictions because of the location in a tributary system and fish and game pay us visits all the time so there's no ouch. They'd clobber me with fines and probably jail time if we did anything to the nesting sites.
We also have a great white heron and a little blue heron and a ton of fisher type migratories, no swans, though. I went to college in Boston lol loved walking the commons!! That was ages ago, though, it's changed so much!!
