Eggs!

Okay, I've been pretty much waiting for duck eggs for almost a year now. And they are here! The ones on the right are some of our first duck eggs. They are slightly gray.

The Big Thaw

Once the pond thawed out the ducks took to it, well, like ducks to water! It was such a wonderful thing to see them slowly explore it. They are so much more confident now. I guess it helps that there is food in them there waters. We wonder if the fish population will take a nosedive this summer. What are those ducks eating, we wonder? Fish eggs? Vegetation? Anything they can get their bills on? Probably all of the above. Do you know that ducks eat mud?

Now the ducks are two males and six females. They are a strong group but show some signs of individuality. One male has a yellower bill than the other. The darker billed constantly reminds the yellow billed that he is the lesser of the two. I see them playing though, and ganging up on the females when it comes to mating. Always a disturbing sight, but hey, that's what animals do. The females are an interesting lot, too. One female always does her own thing. Preferring to sit out on group activities and preen instead. I can't tell them apart, but there's another female that nips the others when there is food involved. I will chance a guess that it's the same one that comes running first when I sing out, "Lettuce!" They say that ducks will eat many different kitchen scraps but with these ducks it's only lettuce. Nothing else will do.

Duck beach in the winter

Duck beach didn't look very much like a beach anymore. When it was very cold the droplets of water that normally "roll off a duck's back" would turn into little pellets of ice.

Winter slowed us all down

The snow was deep and confusing for our webbed wonders and we had a few mishaps. We now have eight ducks. Two we think we lost to foxes and one was badly hurt during what we think was either a dog or coyote attack. Nonetheless, the ducks would very often not come back to the barn to sleep and would stay out all night! The nerve.



It got very tiring going down to let them out and lock them in every night in the deep drifts of snow. I grumbled a lot, but I also found the beauty in clear cold nights that I wouldn't otherwise be out in. The stars are particularly beautiful and of course no one else is outside, so it's very quiet.