AM: I was thrilled to find all eight ducklings this morning. Seems lessons are over. Momma duck sat on the bank watching like a hawk. For a while I only saw seven and was worried, but then the eighth ducking came scooting toward the others from across the pond, lickety-split. By now, I'm sure that's the one I consider the eldest. I swear they're all bigger today.
The other adult ducks seem to be keeping a safe distance away. I think the longer that goes on, the more likely they'll be to accept the babies. I sure hope so. It was heartbreaking to watch some years ago when they killed the babies. That was the reason we took the nest tube down. If some of these ducklings survive to adulthood I'll remove the nest tubes. The ponds aren't big enough to support a large population.
PM: Around midday the mother duck took the brood from the lotus pond over to the larger pond. Thereafter, I only saw seven ducklings. I figure the precocious one was overdue to get taken, but sad anyway.
The mulberry trees are still dripping with berries. No telling what all birds are in them if I took the time to watch. Here is a
Western Tanager in one of the nearly dozen loaded trees.
2 comments:
Good news that they've had a few days of survival....ducklings are so winning. My mulberries are not nearly as ripe as yours, but nevertheless, I saw some waxwings giving them a try. The squirrels do too.....
P.S. Monument. Ha. I never even thought gravestone when I wrote that. Glad we got it cleared up.
Today was their second day. Lost one and maybe another. I went out shortly before dark and only saw 6 but they were near vegetation and go into that so maybe there were still seven. I'll look better in the morning before I head to the oasis to service feeders. I never thought of gravestone either. I was thinking maybe you considered my house a physical monument, which I was thinking of a museum as not a monument so I wasn't sure what you meant. But I see a monument doesn't have to be a significant structure, and can be symbolic. Anyway, I was just curious as to what you meant. Never was an issue or anything.
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