New Visitor to the Pond!

[pecan]

The pond will be a year old in June and last year I had:

Dragon Fly's
Quail
Robins
Dove

Visit the pond. Well I was outside this evening playing with steer manure and was startled when these two lovely birds flew down over my head and landed in the pond.

Look on the far right and far left of the pic

 

[pondlover]

Awesome Pecan. Will they eat your fish? I sure hope not.​

 

[pecan]

I don't know... I don't think so and I hope I am right. I am going to google it.

 

[addy1]

Very pretty mallards your fish are safe from them.

Foods:


Aquatic plants, insects, mollusks, crustaceans, seeds

 

[koiguy1969]

i believe your fish are safe...and they'll eat string alge. you'll see their butts aimed at the sky!! problem is they poop on everything!

 

[Anthony Altorenna]

Mallards are beautiful, but they can be messy!

The pair is probably looking for a safe location to build a nest, and they might select a quiet spot under your shrubs and bushes. In a few weeks, you might get to see a batch of little ducklings!

 

[addy1]

I had one raise 17 little ducklings along my arizona stream. They were so cute.

 

[baeya]

Awwww....so sweet! Did they fly away or are they still there?

 

[herzausstahl]

If they stay your are fine, we have tons of mallards around here. I am surprised they didn't get scared away by your presence, at public places like our local sanctuary they are really tame and get fed all the time, even at the Lock System (http://heritageparkway.org/sites/de-pere-lock/) where I worked during college years ago they were also really tame but we fed them all the time too. Anytime on my parents land I would get near them they would take off almost immediately, but never found a nest. The ducks were always friendly when I worked at the locks, even when they were nesting or had ducklings. The ducks got tame enough you could pet them while you fed them by hand and the ducklings walked everywhere and we could feed them by hand also, was really cool. I never did find duck nests, just geese ones, and if you go around a nesting Canadian Goose, don't. They can get pretty nasty.

 

[pecan]

They hung out for quite a while last night checking out the pond. They weren't scared of me at all. At first I tried to be still and quiet while I took the pictures, then I got up and started working on the flower beds and they didn't care.

I love ducks! They are one of the few animals that mate for life. Oh sweet little love birds.

 

[j.w]

How neat to be able to have gotten pix of them and hope they stay and build a family pecan but if not they had a nice visit and a cool drink before traveling onward and upwards! Maybe if they leave they will come back and visit now and then since they know it's there now.

 

[Dafishes]

Thats cool! i have to keep a net over my ponds but i enjoy the new wildlife its brought to my yard, i live close to sandy bottom bird reservation so i see egrets and blue herons all the time standing in my yard or on my garage lookin at my pond alot, one day last summer i heard the heron yell "get in my belly" at the fish!! ive seen salamanders also

 

[koiguy1969]

I'M GLAD YOU LIKE THE DUCKS... ive had a mating pair here for years. i run them off but they keep coming back. theyre here everyday atleast a few times a day.they can gobble up some string alge tho!! better them than the GBH...

 

[sissy]

The only problem you have is once they make a nest there they keep coming back and so do there babies .You could end up with a flock like the guy had with the swimming pool .He had only 2 and within the next couple of years he got lots of them coming and mucking up his pool .