It's that time of year. On our nightly walk with Paisley, we go past a nice pond in a neighborhood behind our RV park. One evening in April, we started noticing ducklings along with some of the adult ducks in the pond. This Mallard pair had four little ones with them. There are a lot of Muscovy ducks in this pond as well; and based on some of the duckling images I've seen online, the yellow ducklings look like Muscovies. The Mallard duckling images I've seen all have the brown eyebar and brown on the top of the head. Perhaps there was some intermingling of ducklings from different clutches here? Or perhaps Mama Mallard got frisky with a Papa Muscovy? Only the ducks know for sure! Here's a Muscovy mama duck leading a group of ducklings on the same pond. When doing a bit of duck research online I learned that the papa ducks do nothing to help with duckling rearing, and the mamas don't have to feed the ducklings, just lead them around. Quite a difference from the wild birds I'm used to who have to work so hard to feed their nestlings. I thought this smaller white duck with the large Muscovy mama was interesting. Maybe a juvenile from an earlier litter? The ducklings are safely up against the shoreline as Mama had just guided them to safety for the night. There is a also a pond at our RV park. It's small but pretty with trees dripping with Spanish moss growing right in the water. In the winter there was a large flock of Common Mergansers living on this pond. I kept meaning to photograph them but never did. Then one day there were only a few, then none. I assume they've flown to their spring breeding grounds. There is one duck who has been here ever since we arrived at this park last October. It's an all-white duck, I assume a drake (male), who is all alone. I feel kind of sorry for this duck, since it has lost its mate, apparently, but people feed it, and since it stays around, it must be doing okay. It hangs out with whichever other ducks happen to be on the pond, but it is often alone. You can see the lone white duck towards the bottom right of this photo of our pond. It seems to prefer this side bank of the pond as I almost always see it there, when it's not swimming. I think he (or she) is a very sweet-looking duck. Recently I noticed a Mallard pair on our little RV park pond. And then a few weeks later, I saw them on the pond with a large group of ducklings. As of yesterday I still hadn't had a chance to get a photo, when Barry came running in shouting for the camera. Seems Mama Mallard had brought the large clutch up to our street in the park, several blocks away the pond. Very exciting! Here they are going around my cruiser bike and the picnic table on our site. After wandering around several sites, they started heading back in the direction of the pond. Fortunately, a lot of folks who spend all winter in Florida have left the park to head back north, so there was no traffic on the park roads at this time. And I'm sure even if someone were driving through, they would stop at the sight of this. Make way for ducklings! There are eleven -- count 'em -- ducklings. I was worried about Mama having to feed all those mouths before I read that she doesn't. But it's a large group to lead around. It certainly made my Saturday afternoon to see these little guys. Who says RV life isn't exciting?
Sometimes you just have to open your eyes and pay attention to the little things (literally)!
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Emily & BarryWe're a long-married, early-retired couple who are currently traveling as nomads with no fixed home base. After years of living in North Carolina (Emily's home state), we spent 18 months living oceanfront on Ambergris Caye, Belize, a year road-tripping the US in a Honda CR-V, a year in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and are now roaming North America in our 32' motorhome, Pearl, following warm weather whenever possible. Archives
July 2019
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