Terrifying Duckling Calamity • Earth Day • Spartanburg

One of our resident Mallard couples fittingly chose Earth Day to introduce us to their ducklings. It was the first brood of the season at Hidden Falls, and its debut was rife with terrifying moments that lasted until nightfall. A few days after this ordeal, another brood emerged with a second Mallard pair, and our favorite goose and gander added a quintet of goslings to make Hidden Falls a vibrant and exciting waterfowl nursery.

UPDATE May 14, 2009: The ducklings continue to fare well, but we are down to ten from this brood. For the week that followed Earth Day, we had to rescue separated ducklings five more times. The first duckling we lost was the one you can see was injured in the fall. (It's also the one that wanted to go back in the bucket.) He just disappeared one day. Then we lost another to a red-shouldered hawk. We've witnessed two such attacks from hawks, one from a Blue Heron that I caught on film, and one attack from a snapping turtle. We've also had another brood show up from our crazy duck. The waterfowl count as it stands today: 10 from this brood, two other broods of five each and one brood of five goslings for a total of 25 young'uns and 12 or so adults. This is the busiest spring we've seen at Hidden Falls. The flying lessons the ducklings receive are truly fascinating. We don't know how the mamas communicate their expectations to their respective broods, but they do so with the efficiency and perseverance of a drill sergeant. They are so much fun!

Banded Duck: If you look closely (it helps to watch in HQ), you'll see that the Mama Duck in this video is banded. She's the same one who has lived here since 2005 and has had other, smaller broods before that did not survive this long into the season. Since we've had so much contact with her and her ducklings recently, she allowed me to get close enough to snap some photos of her band. It is from the South Carolina Waterfowl Association (SCWA). Her band number is 04-311933. Sage received a Certificate of Appreciation from the SCWA for finding one of their banded ducks, and on it we discovered that our Mama Duck hatched in Darlington, SC, in 2004 and was banded in Union, SC.

Percolating Ducklings: One of the ways the ducklings and goslings learn to fly is by swimming underwater using their big webbed feet and adorable little stubby wings. The water offers great resistance to help strengthen their muscles. It is really cute to watch them splash and bloop around, especially when the big brood is all clumped together as they dive and resurface. The duckings can only stay under for just a few seconds at a time, but we have seen the goslings stay beneath the surface for as long as 10 seconds. I have some footage of this delightful percolation that I'll try to string into a little movie once I catch some of the cute little bursts of hydroplaning the broods do to strengthen their legs enough to one day reach take-off velocity.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Spartanburg
• band
• nursery
• duck
• pond
• ducklings
• drake
• goose
• gander
• goslings
• terror
• waterfall
• dam
• conservation
• drama
• Earth
• Day
• Kuhens
• SCWA
• USGS
• banded
• South
• Carolina
• Waterfowl
• Association
• SC

[MrGovernment502]

that's terrible one looked dead...

[MyGombaba]

Appearances can be deceiving. Two minutes into the video the titles state that not a single duckling was lost. For more on their development, please read the description.

[guitarruler1432]

oh geese did some die when they fell?

[dodg0091]

You are extremely lucky that the other pair of ducks didn't attack the ducklings when you let them into the water. The drake especially could have easily torn them to pieces as often happens when the ducklings don't have their mother to defend them.

[ursusarctosana]

Drakes seem to be motivated, mostly, by sex. Good for you for rescuing the ducklings. At least they had a chance.

[TheJimcarey]

That is so sad. I HATE WHEN MALLARD DO THAT!