I had been expecting to see some ducklings for a while, but hadn’t seen hide nor hair of one, or come to that, no feathers either. I had taken to popping out around dusk to see what was happening on the local pond and possibly getting a photo with that fine glow that comes as the sun sets. As I recall, that evening was quite disappointing, photo-wise. I was heading home, and happened to glance along the path that circles the pond as I crossed it. About fifty yards up the path, Mama Mallard was leading five ducklings across the path, from the undergrowth on the right to the water on the left. By the time I reached their launching ramp, Ma and the kids were disappearing into the twilight (Jun 4th photo).
The photos are gathered in a gallery below. On a phone, they will be in order, but if you see them in three columns, the order gets mixed up a bit to fit them together. However, each one has the date in the caption.
A couple of nights later, the family did pretty much the same; I was looking for them, again around 9pm, and then heard a splash from around the previous time’s launching and there they were. This time they came ashore on what I call the spit – a ramp that goes out into the pond, and that became a pattern.
By June 12th, when I saw the family out on the pond, I could guess what would happen, so I crouched down near the end of the spit and they all landed quite happily on the spit with me about ten feet away. They were coming to the pond earlier in the evening now, and so there was a beautiful back-lighting which shows up the duckling feathers so nicely. Now around this time, two families of Canada Geese had shown up overnight. There were nine goslings altogether, so thirteen in all. I was happily taking duckling photos when all thirteen came ashore, right by the ducks.
I think Mama Mallard must have told her kids to stay still and quiet, but she took off. The geese showed some interest in these tiny water fowl, and totally ignored me. Even the goslings were five or six times the height of the ducklings, but the little guys stayed still and as it turned out no one got trampled or pecked and eventually everyone went on their own way, Mama came back, and I let out a sigh of relief.
The next day (June 13th) I eventually found the family in the reeds by the spit. They merge so well into vegetation that they were really hard to spot, and even then it was Mama that I found first – it’s harder to hide a full grown duck!
Over the next few days, I would find them in one of two places, the reeds or the rocks just above the outlet from the pond. Unfortunately, their number was now down to four ducklings. Around this time also, most of the geese disappeared as mysteriously as they had arrived, leaving one parent and one gosling. Or maybe this was a new family – I couldn’t tell!
The last I saw of the ducklings was on Jun 27th. I had seen them all on their rocks before I did my final circuit of the pond. At the far side there is a narrow path that leads from the gravelled main trail down to the water’s edge, and I had gone there to see if anything was going on. When I left and climbed the path, I was surprised to find Mama Mallard and her brood coming down the path. I stopped and we looked at each other. For quite a while. I had time to take a couple of photos with my camera – they were so close it was hard to get everyone in the frame, even zoomed out – and to get out my phone and set it up for a quick video. Then she decided I was pretty harmless and led her family down the path towards me.
I thought she would march right by, but apparently she knew a shortcut and sidled into the long grass and in a moment there was no trace of them. And that was the last time I saw them. Maybe she had brought the family over to say goodbye before moving on. I can but hope.