A mallard duck decided last month that a spot right below our kitchen window was a great place for a nest. Today, her nine ducklings finally hatched. Damn, they were cute! I was fortunate enough to catch them before they actually left the nest, so I got to watch them make their first foray into the world, fuzzy little ships behind a big, quacking Battlestar Galactica. It was kind of momentous.
I’m holding out a small chance that mom and babies might continue to use the nest. From what I’ve read, that can happen if the nest is fairly close to water. Maybe they’ll at least visit for some bread crumbs.
Yesterday, as I turned out onto the road in front of my apartment, I immediately had to stop as a duck and her six ducklings did the classic all-in-a-row crossing of the street. They seemed completely oblivious to my car and I was gld to see them make it safely. I hope they start swimming in the apartment pond instead of the canal across the street. That’ll keep them off the road.
Driving home from work I had to stop while a family of geese crossed the road. The father and mother goose were followed by roughly 8 or 9 tiny little goslings. The most adorable thing was how the goslings had such trouble mounting the curb. Their little legs were working frantically and they’d get almost up then fall back down; almost up … then fall back down. Finally they all made it.
Also, there was a pair of mallards that used to sleep in my driveway. They’d see me starting to pull in slowly, get up, move a few feet to the side so I could park without running them over, then go back to sleep.
I hope you area, because there’s not much meat on a duckling. It’d be like eating chicken wings but instead of just the wing it’s an entire animal. And I have to imagine that it’d be really fatty and greasy, even more so than goose.
I once made way for racoons. I know they’re a controversial subject but…we had this scatching in the attic/crawl space for weeks. We kept going :eek: . Tillone day way I was was sitting by the window and down comes mother raccoon with a baby in in her teeth, held by the scruff of the neck like a kitten. Say what you want about them getting into your garbage cans but there’s nothing cuter than an itty bitty baby raccoon.
However roast duck and goose taste delish. You have to prick the bird all over, rub it lightly with salt,lay it on a rack to collect the fat that drops through into the roasting tin. Pour this fat off at regular intervals to prevent overheating.
I kid you not, duck and goose are tasty although there isn’t a great deal of meat on a duck unless you get a really big rascal.
A couple of days ago I saw a momma duck towing 10 ducklings across the pond. Cute as hell. We expect to start seeing our baby gooses soon too; I can hardly wait. But the flock of ducklings led me to a question:
I haven’t seen a wild duck nest so I don’t know how large the eggs are. But domestic duck eggs are huge, maybe 30-50% larger than ordinary chicken eggs.
If all the ducklings hatch on pretty much the same day, then I imagine all the eggs had to be laid on about the same day as well. Now how in the heck did 9 large eggs fit inside that not-so-large bird?
A quick Google says a well-managed aggressively bred laying chicken can produce an egg a day (WOW! & Ouch! I’d have guessed more like 1 per week). At any rate I don’t expect things to be nearly as productive with a wild duck.
So how’s that work? How big are teh eggs, laid at what frequency, etc.?
:eek: . Tillone day way I was was sitting by the window and down comes mother raccoon with a baby in in her teeth, held by the scruff of the neck like a kitten. Say what you want about them getting into your garbage cans but there’s nothing cuter than an itty bitty baby raccoon.