What else eats ducks?

In my prior post, I told you about opossums eating our ducks. Well, opossums aren't the only duck enemies in the neighborhood. We've got racoons as well...apparently. Next time we build a duck pen, I would like it placed farther from our bedroom window. Bill and I are well aware of the warning quacks from the ducks. Since it's been so long now, I can't remember if we put the ducks away on the night in question or not. Anyway, something got at the ducks again. Bill ran out to see what was going on...we are quite aware of the warning quacks nowadays. He said that one of the ducks was on the other side of the fence and torn up a bit. He gently carried her back to the pen. Oh...my...now I think I am beginning to get stories in my head mixed up...
well...ends up that the next morning, the duck is in the Hall's yard by their garden...still alive...somehow. The girls and I were able to get her back into our yard and into the pen. I won't go into her injuries but suffice it to say that it was amazing that she was still alive and able to do anything! Sad to say that she wasn't with us come morning. :-( Not really surprised by that though. So now we have a dead duck in the pen. I figure that Bill can clean it up when he gets home from work. Well, by that time it was dark and raining so he didn't. Well, I would have liked to have been able to go to sleep and not worry about it until the next day, but I kept thinking that leaving the dead duck out there was just an invitation for all other critters to come and feast. So around 1:00 AM...in a bit of rain, I put on my shoes and raincoat, grab an umbrella, a shovel and bucket and head out to do the deed. Well, this is a rather icky thing to take care of if you ask me, so I am totally not looking forward to it.
I get out to the pen and formulate my plan of action.
I untied the section of the top of the pen above the duck. We had recently tied up the pen to try to keep critters out and ducks in. The plan was to scoop the duck into the bucket, then lift the bucket out. I double-bagged the bucket and lowered it down. The next part took a ton of willpower and emotional strength. Let me tell you, standing in the rain at 1:00 AM and attempting to scoop a dead duck out of the pen isn't my idea of fun. Scooping a dead duck out of a pen at 12 noon and sunny isn't high on my list either...else I would have taken care of this in the day. I guess not being able to see helped soften the situation a little bit. So I took in a deep breath and reminded myself that this was something that HAD TO BE DONE! So I lowered the bucket, and scooped the duck into it. That wasn't exactly easy, it was tricky to get that duck into the shovel...gross. But I did it!! YAY! I was so pleased with myself! I pulled the bucket out, tied the bag and took care of that!
I tied the top of the pen back up and thought that I should try to make the whole cage more secure. We had some leftover paving bricks near the cage, so I thought I would put them around the bottom of the chicken wire to help fill some gaps. Well, those bricks are quite heavy. So there I am at 1:00 AM in the dark in the rain throwing these heavy bricks to the other side of the fence! When trying to get them to just the right place in the neighbor's yard, I threw them as close as I could, then tried to use a pole to push them into place. Didn't work too well, but at least I tried. I was able to get some placed better around the front of the house. Hopefully my efforts would pay off. Well, no other ducks were eaten that night.

What's eating baby ducks? The answer

Sunday morning, 5 AM or so, I am awakened by a terrible fuss from the duck pen. Since the ducks are right outside our bedroom, this happens from time to time. So, I get up, go outside and throw food at them. Of course, it is still dark and I haven't got contacts in so I really can't see anything. The food shuts them up for a little while, so I go back to bed.

Sunday afternoon, as I was wanting to watch football (see other blog), Bill calls me out to the yard as he had found an injured baby duck and the other one missing. Something had got into our duck cage, eaten the eggs, injured a ducky and eaten another. :-( Our poor little guy. The one who survived couldn't walk on one of his legs. It looked like he might have been able to recover, but the bigger ducks were picking on him, so we put him by himself for a little while. Well, that was a mistake. The whatever-it-was came back and got him later. I guess that was Tuesday night. Bill and I were up and down out of bed three times because of duck noise and trying to "catch" whatever-it-was in action.

Our neighbors enjoy the ducks very much. They keep some live traps around to help keep critters out of their garden and such. They set the trap last night and we caught IT. And my, oh my. It's really ugly...

Yucky! Here's another shot...

Totally icky...

Name that critter!

Opossum! The neighbors are going to "take care of" this catch and set the trap again.

Our five big ducks are safely confined to their "safe" pen until further notice.

Babies and Mamma and Bites

Yes, there are indeed two cute little baby duckies out there!! You forget how TINY they come in a short amount of time!!! We've been keeping the pesky bigger ducks away from the Mamma and babies. Yesterday, Mamma duck wanted to come out and run around the yard with the big ducks. I let her out, thought I closed the pen, and went inside to get the camera - like I need more baby duck pictures...
I came back out and the little guys had come out of the pen. *sigh* Yes, they come very tiny and can get through small openings!!! Anyhow, I waited for the Mamma to go back to the pen on her own. When she did, I shut her in and planned to lower the babies back in through the top. Once I was able to keep the babies from climbing through the fence, I put my plan into action. Mamma duck did not like my plan. She did not like it at all that I was touching her babies. SHE BIT ME! I do not mean a little peck. I've had little duckie bits before. But this was a huge BITE and she left a mark!!! I can still see it today! Wow. She was ticked. Bill came home and just made her extra mad. He picked up one of the babies to hold it. And then he picked up Mamma. If you hold them just right, they calm down a bit and are very soft to pet.
Just thought I'd share my duck bite story.

Duck News!

Well, this blog is way behind. I'm trying to figure out all that happened since I left off. So we had 6 "babies." One drowned so we were left with five. The folks in the SUV took 2. We were left with 3. One of the ones they took died, they came back for a new one. Then we had 2.
We still have 2 of those.

So we are looking at the three original "adult" ducks and two of these "teenage" ducks. I'm not sure what has done it, but they are all starting to look alike!! I'm not talking about just size either! Our drake's head doesn't look as dark/green anymore. The Mamma duck that used to fluff her feathers at us is blending in to the others now. The nice Mamma duck looks the same and is sitting on eggs (keep reading). I don't know if sitting on eggs causes a female duck's color change or what?!?! It's bizarre. I should have been keeping up with this blog so I'd have a better record of these things!!!!!

The LATEST NEWS---
The lady ducks had been sitting on eggs again for a while. A little stash seemed to have been building up in the green box. However, those eggs all went away. We aren't sure if the ducks themselves destroyed them, or if chimpmunks or other varmints did it. Oh well. The green box has no eggs and that Mamma is hangin' out with the others now.
Pretty Mamma duck (they had their own names in the beginning, but I lost track of which name was which duck) built herself a little nest in the other corner of their pen. She hasn't laid many eggs that we've known about in the little nest. I don't recall how long she's been tending her corner. Must have been about a month though cause...

WE'VE GOT BABIES AGAIN!
The little people noticed a little brown head peeping out from under Mamma's wing earlier today. Mamma was very protective, but not as crazy as the other Mamma had been. I told the girls to close the door to the pen once the big ducks had exited so they wouldn't have the chance to kill the baby. Yay! Another baby! Oh, they are so small! One forgets so quickly how small things come! Especially since the "babies" from earlier this year are as big as the "big ducks" now. :-)
Later this evening, I hear "We have two baby peep-peeps." (This language coming from the high schooler, not the KG :-).
Apparently, there was a second little duckie who had wandered away from the nest that we didn't see earlier. I have not seen the second myself, but I have reliable sources. :-)

Good News, Sad News, and Public Service Announcement

A few blog-worthy events from today. The ducks were doing their usual thing this morning, playing in the yard, eating bugs (or whatever it is that they do). I had to run Jill and Courtney to the movies. I didn't take the time to put the ducks back into their pen cause I thought I'd be right back. Well, I got a couple of phone calls which sidetracked me from coming home right away. I did get home around the same time as Bill & the little girls. Soon after, an SUV pulled in to the driveway. One of our neighbor's daughters has recently moved to a farm with a pond and was coming to pick out and pick up some ducks. :-) This wasn't a surprise to us. The neighbor had talked to Bill about it before, just didn't know they were coming today. Well, we went to show them the duckies and counted, 1,2,3,4,5,---? Where was #6? Oh my. :-( Here's the sad news. Bill found #6 in the pond. Drowned. :-( I feel bad cause it wouldn't have happened if I'd put them back in the pen when I left. I guess it may have happened eventually anyway. They say that little ducks can't swim too well until their feathers come in. A few of our little guys had been swimming some in the pool. Many of their feathers seem to be coming in. Our little girl's feathers are in yet, but she was ok. Since we weren't here, we don't know exactly what happened. Perhaps there was a duck fight? Perhaps he just pushed himself by staying in too long. Perhaps some other critter contributed to his demise. We shall not know. But it was very sad.
The good news is that our little girl and the nice male she's been hanging out with have a new home on a farm with a pond. Bill sent them off with some feed. Hopefully they will thrive. Gotta warn them about bread. Bread is BAD for ducks!
That reminds me:
There is a female duck sitting on some eggs outside of the children's wing entrance at church!! Neleh saw it on our way to pick Becka up from PALS camp this week. Of course, laying near her, hot dogs buns. So, I informed a couple of members of the church staff that bread is, indeed, bad for ducks. Of course they had never heard this before. Only people with and around ducks realize this. So now YOU, who have read this post, know not to feed ducks bread, crackers, etc. Stick to fruits, veggies, and of course - duck food (cracked corn, poultry mash, etc.). They sell crickets at the pet stores and bait shops- I've wondered if the ducks would eat them??

I may start picketing at the local parks -- "Don't Feed Bread to the Ducks!!" We've got to get the word out! Tell all of your friends! Take grapes to the park the next time you want to feed the ducks. Certainly do not give "junk food" to the ducks. That stuff's not very good for humans! You think it's good for ducks? Heck no!! Save the ducks!