My 31 year old son, Quinn and his wife discovered they have some interesting wild life company on Sunday.
While Carrie was pulling weeds in the front landscaping, a mallard duck was acting very aggressive towards her. .....so they figured something was up.
Inside one of their bushes in front of the house, is a nest with 9 eggs. This is awesome!
You may recall my experience earlier this year with the cardinals and their 3 babies.
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/28017/
Now we get to learn about mallard ducks!
There are 9 eggs in momma's nest. The eggs look similar to the picture below.
There is no water nearby in this case. I read that ducks like to nest near water. It takes around 28 days for the female to incubate the eggs. The males, after mating don't play a big role in the child rearing......unlike the cardinals, where daddy was providing as much food as mommy after they hatched.
Unlike baby cardinals that are useless little furry blobs with big, open mouths for a couple of days after they hatch, baby ducks can get up and walk pretty quickly after they hatch.
https://forum.americanexpedition.us/mallard-duck-information-facts-photos-and-artwork
"Mallards choose new mating partners each fall, staying together throughout the winter and into the spring mating season. Once mating season has ended, the male mallard moves away from the female. A female will build a nest out of breast feathers and twigs near a body of water. It will then lay a clutch of as many as 13 eggs and incubates them for a month. Once the ducklings hatch, they are immediately taken to water for safety. Mallard ducklings are precocial, meaning they know how swim and feed right after they are hatched. The ducklings will follow their mother for the next 50 to 60 days, maturing and developing their ability to fly. Male mallards have no involvement in caring for their offspring."
A mallard’s diet consists of aquatic vegetation, insects, worms, and grain crops like wheat and corn. A duck can dip its head under the water and forage for plants on the bottom. This is the feeding technique it prefers and executes most often.
https://www.fws.gov/birds/get-involved/duck-stamp.php
One of the easiest ways that anyone can support bird habitat conservation is by buying Federal Duck Stamps - among the most successful conservation tools ever created to protect habitat for birds and other wildlife.
Federal Duck Stamps are conservation revenue stamps; 98 percent of the purchase price goes directly to help acquire and protect wetland habitat and purchase conservation easements for the National Wildlife Refuge System. Wetlands acquired with Duck Stamp dollars help purify water, aid in flood control, reduce soil erosion and sedimentation, and enhance outdoor recreation opportunities
We still raise a few mallards for the freezer. When I was young my grandfather raised probably a hundred a year for butchering.
Last summer one hen hatched 17 and raised 13 of those. We gave most of them to neighbors with the stipulation they give me one dressed mallard for each four they took. Win/win.
Same for our turkeys. A big home raised tom makes for a fine thanksgiving.
Hope they don't have the same reaction as Tony Soprano, when the ducklings grow up and fly away. https://tinyurl.com/y6nxhea3