Hi,
Can anyone help please the last two days we have had two mallards in our garden who have mated. The problem is that other ducks keep landing in the garden and trying to mate with the female. We keep chasing the others off but is this normal? We have no water in our garden and I don't know what to give them to eat and there are cats around so our garden is not ideal. Are they hiding from the other ducks?!! Any advice gratefully received!
Thank you.
Hi Jules - yes, it's perfectly normal for male mallards to try to mate with females and there will often be a gang of males following a single female - i won't go into details here but this can sometimes be a quite distressing experience for the female, but it is normal behaviour for mallards.
You don't need to worry about feeding them - this is more likely to encourage them to stay and may well attract more. Mallards often nest far from water and it sounds like this pair may be planning to do so somewhere nearby. The best advice is to leave them to it - once she starts nesting the male will be off and leave her to incubate the eggs and raise the young - she'll get off the nest for short periods at night to feed (she'll solve any slug problems you might have in the garden!)
Help swifts by letting us know what they're up to - fill in the 2010 survey
But a massive problem looming if the eggs hatch,hope some of experienced forum people or moderators give you some advice as my guess is you have not much experience in this field and hopefully get help.Not being critical we all have knowledge in different areas.Would think a handful of wheat twice a day would be good food for her if she does nest in your garden.
Thank you for your reply!
Thanks for your reply, they appear to have gone today. I hope so as the garden isn't safe for them.
I've had 2 mallards 4 days in a row ,I've fed them gave them a pool to swim in,then today there's no sign of them does the weather have anything to do with it