Last week two ducks appeared in my garden, they have returned every day, can anyone give me advice as to what I should feed then and why do they keep returning?
Hello spring,
I'll assume these are Mallards (in fact, from your recently added photos, I'll more than assume it), as the species is usually the one that turns up in gardens. Do you have a pond? If a female (the brown one) is there, she may have found a cosy corner in which to nest. Personally, I wouldn't bother feeding them. They forage in fresh water, and will easily find enough food themselves. Plus, if you put food out for them, you could possibly end up with several more Mallards in the garden, which would make an unholy mess on your patio!
Hope this helps,
MC:-)
Yes, they are Mallards, I don't have a pond. I haven't seen any eggs, so maybe they are just resting. I do put food out for the other birds and the ducks have eaten some of it. No sign of them yet, this morning. Thank you for your advice.
Spring said: Last week two ducks appeared in my garden, they have returned every day, can anyone give me advice as to what I should feed then and why do they keep returning?
Hello Spring
We have lots of ducks visiting our garden as we have the canal at the end of it. I find that they usually eat the bird food that we put out, and they really love crumbled up fat balls as well. They also eat bread , and they appreciate a small bowl of water for a drink.
Maybe they have come to your garden for a rest, or are looking for somewhere to make a nest, do you have any water near your house ?
At this time of year they seem to be hyper, flying around the neighbourhood and landing on roofs and also in the midde of the road ! I think the females are getting harrassed by the males and are looking for somewhere to escape to but they usually fly off with their mate.
There was a female on the canal the other day with twelve ducklings, but now there are only six !
Regards
Linda
We saw a female the other day on the canal with twelve ducklings
What a wonderful world :))
Hello Linda.
There is no water directly near my house but there is a large pond about 1 mile away.
No sign of the ducks for a few days, I wonder where they are now?
Thank you for your advice.
Hi Linda
It may be as it is the breeding season that they have been ousted from favourable areas by more dominant birds.
I remember around 20 years ago when I lived in Newport (IOW) next to the River Medina I had a very small garden with a pond and I had a duck and drake swimming on it,and what a mess they made!! We also found single duck eggs laid in unusual places all around the garden but no nest or anything.
In the same vein we also had mute swans wandering in the busy road outside our house.I was just taking my young daughter to school when I opened the front door to find a swan on the front doorstep,bit of a shock for my daughter especially as she was the same height! The RSPCA who arrived later to herd them to safety said it was because the dominant pair of swans on that stretch of the river had probably driven them off and they didn't know where to go. The swans were all most likely the previous seasons cygnets.
It's not always easy to hug a hedgehog.
But that doesn't mean you shouldn't.
Spring said: No sign of the ducks for a few days, I wonder where they are now?
I have a suspicion that the female has completed her clutch in a nest - possibly tucked away in a quiet corner of your garden, so take care when you are doing the gardening over the next three weeks or so - and has started to incubate. Normally at this time the male abandons her and goes back to the pond nearby. She will sit tight for 28 days, when the chicks will hatch within hours of each other. Once they have dried up and gathered their energy, the mother will encourage them off the nest and will walk them to the pond where she came from.
At my previous home we had mallards in our garden for weeks at this time of year, every year. They appeared every day. We were possibly half a mile flying distance from the river but had no pond or water in the garden. They were tame, but not surprising as the mallards by the river are tame. I didn't feed them and this didn't stop them coming. I never found a nest. What was surprising is that our house was also a boarding kennels, so there were dogs about all the time. Again, this didn't put them off.
Cheers, Linda.
See my photos on Flickr
They look like MY ducks! LOL
I usually have a pair of ducks in my garden at this time of year. I have a large pond, and due to the regular visits from herons, we keep the pond netted over the winter when the pond weed is depleted. This does not put the ducks off, who surprisingly fly in during mid march and land on the net. They then make their way to the edge of the net and go underneath it, happily swimming around on the pond. (The net is around 30 to 50 cm above the water surface.) They wander out onto the lawn, eat duck food that we buy for them and the occasional bit of brown bread. They usually spend most of the day with us, flying off at dusk and returning at breakfast time. They get very tame, coming up the garden when they see us in the house. I worry abit about the ducks landing on the net in case they hurt themselves so now we have taken the net away. There is a risk of losing a few fish to the heron, but now there is more weed, the fish have more places to hide.
This year, a pair turned up as usual and settled into the same routine, however two weeks ago the ducks left one day and we have only had visits from a male once or twice since, no sign of the female. I think that something may have happened to her, or I guess there is a chance she is hiding somewhere in my garden sitting on eggs.I don't think this is very likely as we have never had any ducklings in the previous 5 years even though there has been plenty of mating. The female has laid a few very small rather feeble eggs over the years, just in random places wherever she happened to be at the time, usually on the lawn. We have always felt that she has fertility problems. We know she has a new husband this year as her old partner died last year (another long story that I won't bore you with!), not sure whether a new partner would have any affect on her ability to produce decent eggs.
I love having wild visitors like this, it is not a huge garden, and I am always surprised to see ducks on my lawn even after 5 years of regular visits! Having been able to watch ducks at close quarters over this period has made me think that ducks have alot more sense than you would imagine!
Toadflax.
I have a pair of mallards at the moment. We live about 1/2 from the river Wharfe and until 2 years ago we got the same ducks every year (Female had an injured leg).
This year two new mallards have arrived and made themselves at home in my pond. I buy them special duck and swan feed from my local pet store and they love it, but the also seem to forage also. The male is here most of the time, but the female seems to come for a short time morning and evening.
I don't get ducks coming to my garden any more, don't know why. I think the last time I posted on this thread must have been the last year they came. I still hope I might get some more, we have a lovely little duck house waiting for them.