Quack Quack

Every day since May 18, with a couple exceptions, I've walked 2+ miles down to the grade school and back.  Along the walk is a series of wetlands that run along both sides, and under, the road and yesterday was the first and only day in all my walks that I've seen ducks.  It's not the greatest pic but there are two pair of Mallards there.  Not sure why they're not there more often, perhaps they know something I don't but certainly nice to see them.  Brings back fond memories of growing up on Burgess Ave, which abutted wetlands, and we'd always see Mallards visiting.

Work Ducks

Where I work has this great, peaceful courtyard.  The only way in an out is via the access doors located in the building or from above.

This female Mallard duck pictured below decided this was an ideal location to set and hatch her eggs.  Now from a predator standpoint she couldn't have picked a safer location.  However, from a food and water standpoint I question her decision making, as there's none.

She hatched eight adorable little duckling.  The courtyard was essentially turned into a fishbowl for the employees who would line the windows to catch a glimpse of the mother duck and babies waddling around.

Food and water have been provided, so for now they're doing just fine. 

Proof Is In The Pool (Pudding) In This Case!

Now, I know that you all know that I wouldn't tell a lie, you know!  That being said and for those skeptics out there here's a Friday AM picture of Donald and Daffy duck lounging pool side.  They stayed for maybe twenty minutes, then off they went.

Friday afternoon the male arrived again but this time alone.  He stayed in the water all the while "quack-ing" for his lady who never came or responded.  He flew off in short order.  However, this morning I was awoken to the noisy sound of "QUACK QUACK QUACK QUACK...".  The misses had arrived and was nervously calling for her mate who must have been returning the favor and ignoring her as she did to him the previous day.

When I raised the window screen to ask her to keep it down, she proceeded to fly up out of the water towards me and then veered off and landed on the chimney.  She stayed up for the close to 10 minutes QUACK QUACK QUACKing away.  She didn't seem bothered that I had made my way onto the deck and to take pictures of her.  She eventually flew off in search of her mate.  I can only imagine that he's gonna be in a world of trouble for not answering her.  I bet he had to sleep on the equivalent of the ducky couch last night...

I'm Ready For School!

Parked first in line to drop Emilie off at school and about 15 minutes before the morning chaos was to start. The calm before the storm - before the buses begin to arrive to unload kids, parents start dropping off kids and the walker & biker appear.

When, look, out of the sky - it's a bird, it's a plane, it's superman...nope it was a duck. A male Mallard swooped in and landed in the middle of the parking lot! Weird, since there isn't a pond nearby within walking distance, hmm.

He slowly waddled his way towards the side of the school, where the scrubs are and what to my wandering eyes should appear but his mate, a female Mallard.

Then the two decided to skip school and off then flew into the wild blue yonder.

The End

Chain Link Kennel

Here are a couple pictures of the chain link fencing we're using to house and cage our pair of Muscovy ducks. If you look close enough you should be able to see the ducks too, just beyond the fence.

The duckies doing just fine and seem to be ill effected by the cold, snowy New England weather. They've managed to fly out of their cage, which is really a kennel, twice to date but didn't venture too far. They sat patiently in front of the gate versus behind it like the pictures show until I arrived with their breakfast and willingly in they went. It's about time to cut their flight feathers to prevent this from becoming a habit.



Drake (male) on top and hen (female) on the bottom.

Calling in the BIG Guns - UPDATE

Here is an update on our Muscovy ducks, as you can see they've grown...

If you recall we "adopted" three ducklings. The number three was chosen in an effort to increase our odds of having one male and one female. Of course we ended up with two males and one female. Since keeping two males is out of the question, one of the males has since been re-homed, which also saves on feed and boy can these quackers eat! So, we're down to a strikingly handsome pair (the female is the one sporting the black cap) - we've accomplished our intended goal.

We also purchased a used 5' wide x 5' deep x 5' tall chain link dog kennel that we're using to house these guys. It's working just fine for us and the duckies seem to enjoy it too. Since Muscovies are notorious fliers and escape artists I'll need to clip their wings soon otherwise the kennel investment will be for not. They'll always come home, but I'm sure our neighbors wouldn't appreciate their visits. This should be done twice a year and only needs to be performed on one wing. All I need to do it cut the flight feathers in half - like a haircut of sorts with no pain or discomfort to the animal.

Plan B is in full swing! Think Spring...

Calling in the BIG Guns...

Okay, here's the issue -

The wet spring and summer we had created perfect breeding conditions for many an insect, for example it's nearly impossible to venture outside when the sun goes down without getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. Another pest that has thrived this season, and one that has worn out it's welcome (which it never really had) is the slug. You can find them out and about in the early mornings, especially when the dew is still covering the lawn or turn over any rock and you'll find the slimy, trail-leaving pests hiding out.

They're eating holes many of our flower plants, especially the hostas, which is clearly their favorite based on all the damage they've inflicted. You can see an example of the damage in the picture below. The other morning I killed over 200 slugs in the back yard alone, which didn't even put a dent in their population. I used a pair if pruning scissors to cut the son-of-bitches in half, however, sprinkling them with good ole table salt immediately dries them up and works wonders too.

Since patrolling for and killing slugs is a time consuming task and really not the best use of my time we've decided to proceed with plan B!

What is plan B you ask? Hmmm?

Well, plan B involves the purchasing one of the bestest, all natural, aka "organic", controllers of slugs in the business...



The Muscovy duck! Game on!

These are (3) week old ducklings that were hatched on 8/13/2009. We only wanted a pair but since they're too young to sex we decided on three in an effort to increase the odds of one male and one female. I hope it doesn't turn into a ducks version of, "The Faber/Leonard Chicken".

The next order of business is naming them. Emilie has taken on this responsibility with the exception of the male (again, assuming we have one), which I've taken the liberty of naming "Kid Rock"!

Yes, of course I need my head examined! I have no one to blame but myself too. However, if this works it's brilliant and all we'll need to worry about is walking in the yard with bare feet, oooh yuck! Perhaps, I haven't thought this through entirely.

Side Note:
Prior to departing on our vacation we relocated our rabbits and chickens to my dad's house to be cared for. I was fit to be tied throughout this whole process and swore up and down that the animals were going to go once we returned - so go figure how we still have them and we're still adding to the menagerie...