Ducks

[pwlynch]

Last year we built a wildlife pond in our garden.We got some tadpoles from a friend and watched them hatch,had the usual beetles etc and it has been fantastic watching various birds having a bath.This week a pair of mallards,male and female have been coming backwards and forwards to the pond and the area around the pond,flying over the fence to get in.There is a burn just beyond our garden and they must have come from there.We are really chuffed that the ducks have decided to come.Is there anything we should do to encourage them or not do to put them off coming?Is there any potential problems having them in our garden?Has anyone else got wild ducks that regularly visit their garden?

[oldherbaceous]

Good morning Pwlynch, we used to get a breeding pair of Mallards come to our garden pond a few years ago.

Although they were lovely to watch they did use to make quite as mess of the pond plants, but it was a formal pond so it used to show more than if it had been a natural pond.
The ducks never actually seemed to do any damage to plants in the garden though.

The benefits were when they had up to 13 youngsters and they would follow their Mum all over the place. I could watch them for hours.

They now nest in a garden down the road that has a lot larger pond, but it also has a lot of cats nearby, so they lose nearly all their ducklings each year, what i find very upsetting.
This is the problem with wildlife getting tamer year by year.

[Primrose]

Last year a pair of mallards visited us for several week, the female staying longer than the male although she had her nest a few gardens away. We only have a tiny pond and she completely wrecked it with all her paddling about. I loved watching her. She loved pecking up all the seeds which got blown off the bird table onto the lawn but she gobbled up all my tadpoles and newts so I had no froglets last year. This year the pair have arrived again and I've netted over the pond to protect it. She is incredibly miffed about this and now sits for 30 minutes at a time in our shallow stone bird drinking bath. I think it's probably the same duck as last year. If you want to keep your tadpoles you probably need to take precautions now and net your pond over. If I'd known our pair we going to revisit us this year I would probably have bought a cheap kids' paddling pool for them to paddle in and preen their feathers. throwing some bird seed onto your lawn could well encourage them to keep visiting you but if they nest in your garden, they'll need an exit for the ducklings in due course as they won't be able to fly out like their parents.

[pwlynch]

Thanks for your replies Old Herbaceous and Primrose.That would be a shame if they ate our frogspawn and tadpoles,we haven't got any yet,were going to get some from a friend.They are lovely to look at though and we're hoping they'll bring their babies.I have no idea wheere they are nesting,probably not too far away.We're teaching our pup to leave them alone,so far so good.

[macmac]

we had a similar situation last year on a newly completed wildlife pond.it was teeming with tadpoles etc as we'd decanted the water from our previous pond-like greenhouses the first one you get is never big enough!-anyway a pair of beautiful mallards started to visit, we we're delighted at first even though they were wrecking the plants and the tadpoles were gradually disappearing but the final straw came when we arrived home to find them sitting on top of our netted koi pond.my other half went purple he spends hours (and£££s)keeping the water quality perfect so they had to go.i was also concerned they could have trapped their feet in the net.so this year at first sight we chased them off and netted the wildlife pond and they haven't been back.we're quite lucky as we have a rhine running at the back of our allotment with moorhens and mallards so we still enjoy them(and the odd rat)

[Linda and Keith]

DUCKS

In April a pair of ducks arrived in our garden. They visited on and off for a week or two and then we didn't see them for a couple of weeks. One evening the Mother duck arrived at the back door with 8 ducklings. We believe they were only a day old and so cute. We were concerned as the garden is walled and there was no way out and the village pond is about a quarter of a mile away along a very busy road. We decided to do our best for them and bought an 8ft paddling pool, crumber food for the babies and duck pellets/finisher for mum. They are still with us, eight weeks on, and almost as big as mum. They have entertained us and given so much pleasure but we would like to know if anyone else has experienced this as they are just starting to flap their wings furiously. They all look exactly the same as mum in colouring. Can anyone tell us when they develop their duck/drake colouring and will they just fly to the pond or do they need us to take them there. Mum takes off a couple of times a day. We presume she goes back to the local pond. Will they not come back to us once they leave the garden or will they return regularly as we have made them so welcome. The garden is now a mess and they have eaten most of the border flowers but I really don't mind as they are so entertaining. It would be nice to hear other people's experience with garden ducks.

[Primrose]

Gosh - eight ducklings and they're still with you eight weeks on!. That must be a record for a domestic garden and probably they've stayed because there is ample food and water available and Mum is happy they're being well looked after and in a safe place. But in a normal wild situation I would imagine that Mum would be reaching them to fly. Is there no exit at all from your walled garden? Our regular wild visiting female mallard had her babies elsewhere, but obviously nearby so we didn't have the dilemma of them needing to take off eventually to the nearest pond. I would suspect that if they're starting to flap their wings, they're in the early stages of learning to fly, and you could well find that eventually Mum will encourage them to take off and leave. I'm sure you will miss them, but while they stay your garden will increasingly be trashed (as my vegggie patch found with just one regularly visiting female and her two accompanying drakes over a period of several weeks).
If you want some more advice, it might be worth checking out the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) website to see if they have a "Contact Us" section where somebody might be able to give you some better advice. Meanwhile, enjoy them while you've still got them.
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