A nest for mallards!

While doing some spring cleaning on our pond, we startled a mother mallard who rushed in the pond, exposing a dozen eggs she has been incubating

Here she is in the pond, probably scared to death that we would harm her clutch

Often, usually around our dinner time, she would leave her nest, likely going off to her home region to feed. She would never leave longer than two hours, however.

We would come by everyday to check on her. She stayed so still! She seemed uninterested in any of our attempts to eat

Here’s a blurry picture (I was so excited) of some of the chicks leaving the next to hop in the water!

As I’ve mentioned, we have four large koi (and several of their babies). They were each curious about the other. The koi made some soft nibble inquires into tiny duck feet, which caused a minor commotion!

All 12 eggs hatched! Once the last of the ducklings too their plunge, she gave them lessons in our pond! She made all kinds of grunts and quacks.

Mother mallard was quite hungry and eagerly fed on some pieces of white bread I offered her. She even took it out of the kois’ mouth when they tried! After all they had their own food, and she didn’t seem too interested in the koi pellets.

The ducklings stayed close to their mother. Because we had recently refilled our pond, we didn’t have a lot of plants or pots that she could rest on. Mother was hungry and eagerly took several slices of white bread

Mama climbed up to the only water plant we had in the pond at that time, a large pickerel. She liked resting there and called for her ducklings to stay close

As I was taking pictures, my husband ran out to Ace Hardware to get a bag of cracked corn. We figured she was hungry. The babies nibbled at the bread I was offering, but mostly the mother consumed the bread. She must have been starving, staying close to her clutch as they began to emerge.

Here’s a video:

After about 5 hours of this incredible show, the mother mallard climbed out of the pond, with her ducklings closely following. They exited out the back yard, went through a gap in our fence and traveled to points unknown. I did some reading about mallards, and it is common that they abandon their nest, but I wasn’t sure if that meant our pond too. I guess it did. There were a couple of things that might have factored in her decision to leave. 1. Our presence. 2. Our net. This net had confused her as she would always fly in from wherever she visited to feed. She’d bounce on the net for a while before figuring out how to return to her nest. 3. The koi. She might not have appreciated sharing the pond, though I doubt she would have that privacy in nature. 4. No pond plants. She seemed to really like perching on the pickerel, but there wasn’t enough room for the duckling dozen.

I have heard that mallards will return to the location of a successful nesting, so we hope to see her again soon!

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Home for the Mallards!

In 2002, my husband hand dug a large pond, approximately 5,000 gallons. We bought four koi, and have since enjoyed many days and nights in front of the pond.  In coastal Delaware, we are often visited by Blue Herons and as a result of their many visits, we’ve  had to put up a net.  I purchased 3 ft tall copper hooks (about eight) and placed them around the perimeter of the ponds edge, and we suspend the net on the hooks. This allows for the net to sit up approximately 18 inches from the water, so that frogs can come and go!  We drain the pond approximately every two years or so, and once, we had to replace the liner. In early April, while my husband was draining the pond and moving things around, he startled a mother Mallard duck. And she him! She  squawked and  dove into the water. My husband saw her nest, and counted 12 eggs!

We left her alone and on Friday, May 10, we saw her swimming in the pond and talking to her babies, encouraging each to take their first plunge in our fresh water! I’ll post more about this later!