… the adventure went swimmingly!
This walk took place on June 16th, the day after my “Gosling-palooza” post. I’d already been on multiple “missions” to find and photograph goslings, so I was ready to give that quest a rest. Since “baby duckling time” is usually around Father’s Day, I hustled to Heritage Park in search of some of those sweet feathered babies.
I had a few items on my “want list” on this soon-to-be Summer morning. I wanted to check on the goslings that I’d chronicled since Mama was incubating them. I knew I’d recognize the family as there was a discernible runt, a gosling much smaller than its siblings and yes, I still owe you a tale about that Mama Goose and her offspring.
I was also on the hunt for baby Barn Swallows for a future post, so I made a point to look in the rafters of the covered bridge for eyes peering at me over their nest. I hoped I could tick off each “want” on my list, then head for home by high noon as it was another blazing hot day.
Fluff and feathers.
The Cottonwood fluff was a’flyin’ due to the many Poplar trees scattered around the park. Fluff lined the asphalt pathway …
… and drifted lazily in the slight breeze, settling onto the grass and the surface of Coan Lake as you see by all the white dots in this photo.
As I neared Coan Lake, I shaded my eyes and squinted a bit to find any Mama Mallards with their ducklings. In the past I’ve seen several families of ducklings swimming behind their respective Mamas in a neat queue all on the same day. Quickly my eyes alighted on the one and only Mama Mallard with her three ducklings. They were so tiny that if you blinked you’d miss them.
These sweet babies were all over the map instead of trailing obediently behind Mama. Why you ask? The ducklings were distracted by the Cottonwood fluff as seen below.
I had to smile as I watched each duckling lift up its body and briefly go airborne, those wide webbed feet paddling furiously to keep it afloat, while trying to catch one of those prized pieces of fluff. More often than not, the duckling fell backward into the water without nabbing that fluff, sometimes ending up with it plastered to their bill.
Look at this guy (or gal) … such a little soul stirring up such a large wake.
Mama had her eye on her ducklings as well as casting a side-eye toward me. Interestingly, unlike the Canada Goose gander which watches over his mate and his brood, I have never seen the Mallard drake take such an active interest to guard his ducklings – this was the case here. I guess Mama’s got it all handled, huh? Here’s that proud Mama.
This duckling was eager to swim by Mama’s side, tired of messing with the Cottonwood fluff, but …
… its siblings strayed over to the seawall because the fluff, once it landed on the surface of Coan Lake, drifted toward the edges of this manmade pond and glommed together.
That was a bummer for me as the ducklings were so tiny, that even as I cautiously peered over the edge, the babies were often clustered against the seawall and, although it was hot, I didn’t care to join them for a swim.
Mama was uneasy about me as I hovered nearby, despite me speaking in a calm voice while assuring her I meant no harm to her or her babies. Eventually she sounded an “alarm quack” intended to summon her offspring to her side, but kids will be kids, even if they are the feathered variety and the two ducklings at the seawall didn’t heed the call.
Growing irritated with the ducklings’ shenanigans, she quacked a little louder and this time the pair zoomed over to Mama. I struggled to get photos as they moved so quickly. I guess they knew she meant business! 🙂
Mama guided her brood over to the turtle ramp. She went up the ramp, expecting them to follow, but they would have none of that and stayed afloat still playing with the fluff. Mama waddled back down the ramp into the water, then they all disappeared beneath the covered bridge to hang out, a move designed to show the lady with the camera a thing or two!
Patience is a virtue sometimes.
Tapping my foot, while scoping out Barn Swallow babies in the rafters, I waited 15 minutes for the four to emerge on the other side of the bridge. Mama guided her little darlings right into the greenish, goo-covered water near the old Sawmill. Evidently the turtles were happy to climb onto the rocks to escape the slimy water.
The fountain on this side of the bridge was too far away to help disperse the green goo.
The algae was so thick that I pictured the ducklings’ downy feathers stuck together from the mucky water rendering them unable to paddle. The scene looked like an Impressionist painting gone terribly wrong, with water so murky that I’m surprised I could get any reflections … but I did, albeit not the greatest.
The duck family, seemingly oblivious to the muck and mire, paddled around …
… sticking closer to Mama than they did earlier. Perhaps they were intimidated by the funky-looking mess?
I decided to call it done with the ducky crowd, but first, I stopped near the shoreline as I saw something embedded in the grass.
I bent closer and zoomed in. It appeared this Mallard nest was recently abandoned and a few pieces of the eggshells were still inside; likely it belonged to my feathered friends who are the subject of this post.
I was done as it was heating up, so I headed to the car, happy for the outing and a photo card filled with fun and babies!
P.S. – I returned 18 days later, on the 4th of July, to find the same family, but there were no other new Mallard families unfortunately. The babies now looked like mirror images of Mama – gone were the fuzzy little ducklings I had oohed and aahed over earlier.
I am sure the one duckling here is saying: “Hey Mama – the lady who pestered us when we were babies is back!”
I know it is the same family as I walked the entire campus of Heritage Park where the waterfowl hang out (mostly around Coan Lake) and these were the only Mama and ducklings. Yes, sadly it appears that one of the trio did not make it – nature is cruel sometimes.
Terri’s Sunday Stills Photo Challenge today is: In the Swim.
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
Such a fun post to read and also ooh and aah over the babies and their antics! I can just see them playing with the fluff, Linda! Great pics of them all getting into the swim as they do so well. Funny how fast they grow in just a few weeks.
Our phoebes will fledge any day. Like they blew up twice their size overnight. Temps are heating up here too which will get them out of the nest this week. I’ll probably have a WW post to share their progress!
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Thanks Terri! Those ducklings were so sweet to watch, playing like kids, chasing that fluff flying around and trying to catch it mid-air. I was amazed to see how fast they grew in just 18 days. It amazes me how quickly birds grow. I told you a friend of mine documented robins in a nest on her deck. Once their feathers grew in, poof they were ready to fly. I’ll look forward to seeing your WW photos!
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Lovely shots, Linda! Mama quacking louder to get her babies in line made me laugh. I guess mothers are the same everywhere. 😀 It’s amazing how quickly they grew! I enjoyed the adventures of your duck family and was sad to learn one didn’t make it.
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Thanks Debbie! Mama was making them toe the line, that’s for sure. 🙂 She looked a bit exasperated at the two playing with the fluff, while the other one stuck by her side. I’m amazed how quickly they grew too. I’m sure they were newly hatched on the 16th as the nest was still intact and they were so tiny. I’m glad I got a few photos of them near Mama to show just how tiny they were. I’m glad you enjoyed the tale … there’s always a tale of some sort when it involves critters isn’t there? I was sorry to see she lost one of the ducklings. A fellow blogger from the UK goes to a nature preserve almost daily to photograph seabirds and several times recently he saw and took videos of a seagull or a term grabbing a duckling and carrying it away and you could see how upset the mother duck was. Nature is wonderful but cruel sometimes.
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I always enjoy your nature tales, Linda. 😀 That’s so sad when the mamas lose their babies, though! 😔 Nature has no mercy.
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I am always glad when I can do a post about nature Debbie – it’s more fun. Things have been slow as to nature walks due to the heat, humidity and stormy weather. The 4th of July holiday weekend was rain free, but so hot and humid, it really was no treat to take any long walks. I got out on the 4th and went to two local spots. That was it and I got home at noon and it was 85 already. Tomorrow is the only good weather day this week – we have heat, humidity and off-and-on storms/rain all the way through Sunday!
As to nature and how cruel it can be – I know it happens and I hope to never see things like a raptor carrying off a squirrel or a bird. The nature photography site I follow on Facebook has amateur photographers that visit the 13 Michigan Metroparks. They post photos of raptors and their prey. I fed five squirrels at my house for years. Along with the squirrels, I fed two Jays and two Cardinals … every morning I’d put peanuts out on the front porch before going out. They waited for me on the porch or the tree. Then there were no squirrels and I learned from my neighbor that a Cooper’s Hawk watched the squirrels from a tree across the street and swooped down and carried off each squirrel over a few days, not at once. The neighbor is a hunter. I only found that out as I asked if he’d seen the five squirrels I fed all the time. I stopped feeding the birds as raptors will eat other birds. And, of course I feel sick about Council Point Park.
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The weather has been hot and sticky here too, but we haven’t had many storms. That’s awful about your squirrels being carried off! 😲
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The weather is just awful and the future forecast is rain/storms/heat/humidity for the next seven days. Plus, ticks are in abundance they say from all the rain and heat. I thought because we had several bouts of brutally cold weather we were assured the ticks would die off – nope, this is the highest incidence of ticks since 2017. I will need to tread carefully, IF I get out to the bigger parks, it will likely be limited to asphalt paths, no trails through wooded areas, just to be safe.
I was very upset about those squirrels – if he had told me after he saw the first one get carried off, I would have quit feeding them, but he didn’t until I asked if he’d seen them. I wrote about these five squirrels and even named them as I’d look out, all year around, five squirrels, four birds waiting on me, then I’d go feed the squirrels and birds at the Park after feeding them. I am upset about the Park too as you know, so I’ve not been back due to the construction and seeing just the one squirrel. I have about 10 packages of in-shell peanuts right now and a 10-pound bag of sunflower seeds for when I return. I’ll relegate my walks to the ‘hood for now.
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Good idea to avoid wooded areas! We never used to have ticks here, but they seem to be common now.
Sadly, not everyone cares about animals and you’re right, It certainly would have been better if your neighbour had warned you. 😔
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Debbie, I’m starting to wonder where it is safe to go now for goodness sake! There were three incidents of West Nile Virus (WNV) found this year, not in my county, but those mosquitoes can hitch a ride on a person, or animal. Many years ago, around 1985 I believe, my mom and I were in Toronto visiting my grandmother and gone for four days. I fed the birds and squirrels and had birdbaths in the backyard. So WNV was prevalent in Cardinals and Blue Jays but I’d had no incidents thus far. The news was full of stories about avoiding touching a bird that looked sick and to call the Department of Natural Resources to come and get it so they could test for WNV. We got home Sunday afternoon and I went into the backyard to water the flowers, fill the feeders and fill the birdbaths and there were about a dozen dead birds around the yard, mostly Jays. It was horrifying to see as they are such large birds and it is a small yard. We called the DNR Monday morning and they came to collect the bodies and test them. They called us afterward and all had WNV and we were told to take down the feeders and turn over the birdbaths to avoid contamination, but to handle everything with heavy gloves. I did that and then when we got rats from the new neighbor behind who left his dog out 24/7/365 and fed it table scraps, so we hired a pest control service and I had to stop feeding and watering the birds and I gave all my feeders/birdbaths away. Between the birds, then the squirrels, it was all pretty awful.
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Sounds dreadful! 🥺 (I only liked the comment to acknowledge it.) I hope there won’t be any more incidents in your area.
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Yes, I hope not either. My alternative will be to walk on asphalt only. I never got a tick while walking at Council Point Park – it really wasn’t necessary to leave the path, but I started leaving the path to put food for the squirrels and birds under a Weeping Mulberry so they could eat without a hawk carrying them off. That was in part because of the experience at home with the five squirrels, plus I had one swoop down on a squirrel moments after I fed it and it was essentially a “sitting duck” out in the open. But it was not dense and woodsy except along the shoreline. I think WordPress should have an acknowledgment button of some type. I am often conflicted as well but want to acknowledge the comment.
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Gorgeous pic 👌
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Thank you Neeraj Singh.
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A good days duckling hunting Linda. Lovely photos and a quacking good commentary 😀
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Thank you Brian! I love when it is “baby time” – the goslings and ducklings are my favorites. I have not gotten to the big park where I always hope to see Sandhill Crane colts or fawns in about three or four weeks. We have had a horrible heat wave and stormy weather for days. I was happy I could follow-up as to how large the ducklings got in 18 days’ time! Cute quackers!
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hard to believe that in a years time they’ll be big enough to put the chase on you!
Everything is cute,….until it grows teeth,…or attitude!
Great shots Linda!
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Ha ha – yes, they might come after me and say “you pestered us twice lady – now you can just march on outta here!” Yes, they are all cute as babies, just like humans, then they get attitudes and reach the awkward gawky stage. I have some pictures like that of me. 🙂 I’m glad you liked the photos Wayne. I did not realize the one duckling had its bill open until I saw it on the screen. That made my day. It’s the little things sometimes!
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You get the best captures of animal’s facial expressions!! The ducklings grow so quickly…the fuzzy stage is short. Glad you got a shot of them when you found them.
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I was happy I saw them again – growing that fast in 18 days amazed me Esther! Thank you! I like the expression of that last duckling with the open bill too. I never saw it when I took the photo, not ’til it was on the screen.
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Interesting babies!
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Yes, very cute, even half-grown up!
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So innocent!
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💚💚💚
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Last photo: nice quack. 😁
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Yes, that little greeting tickled me too Ally! 🙂
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My mom really loved the ducks that swam around her part of the lake they lived on. It was a group of combined wild and farm ducks. She’d get so sad when the babies disappeared…swallowed up by who knows what swimming in the lake. Sometimes she’d have a nest at the edge of their yard. Your pictures are beautiful. I especially like the one of the little one with all the wave lines (#3) and the little one making a U-turn (#9).
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Dawn, your mom and my mom would have gotten along well as my mom loved ducks too. We often would take a drive to Amherstburg, Ontario, where there was a small pond with lots of ducks and we’d feed them and they also had a restaurant there called “Ducks on the Roof” … everything was duck related, (no, duck was not on the menu). The restaurant had beautiful prints and paintings, carvings of ducks and duck decoys. We were sorry that it closed. My mom collected duck decoys. I follow a UK blogger who goes to a bird habitat and has seen seagulls pick up small ducklings and fly off with them. Those ducklings had to be newly hatched as they were so tiny. The rippled water and big U-turn and wake made them look even smaller.
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The baby ducklings are adorable! They matured so quickly.
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They are so adorable, cute and fuzzy with their distinct markings and usually trailing behind their mom, not off on adventures like these were. I was amazed at quickly they matured in a mere 18 days. I was happy to find them to add a postscript to the post.
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Miss Linda………………………………I enjoyed the close up pictures of the ducklings………………I found that Mama ducks could have up to 10 ducklings but the very next day I assume because of the hawks in the area there are only 5 left…………………….this spring Mama Duck showed up with 5 ducklings the next few days 4 ducklings…………………..Now I don’t know where they walked to……………………………..??
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Thank you Anne Marie, I’m glad you liked the photos. Like you, I hate to think what happened to those missing babies. I don’t like all the Cooper’s Hawks I have been seeing in the neighborhood. You remember back in 2020, the Cooper’s Hawk carried off each of the five squirrels I had been feeding on the porch for years. I was devastated to learn that from my neighbor who saw the hawk taking them. I asked him if he’d seen my squirrels around and that’s what he told me. A blogger in the UK takes photos of waterfowl and he saw seagulls or terns swooping down and taking baby ducklings. That is just wrong. That’s a shame about your missing ducklings too – your Mama duck thought she had a safe haven for her brood at your pond but those hawks are awful. Nature is beautiful but very cruel sometimes.
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Baby ducks are so cute! Great photos Linda
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Thanks Susan! They are so cute and fuzzy and these were more adventurous than most ducklings are.
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I love fuzzy baby ducklings. Love to see them swim in the water and love to see them wobble in the grass or sidewalks. You got some lovely shots, Linda!
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Thank you Miriam! It was fun watching these cute and fuzzy ducklings. I am sure they couldn’t have been more than a day old and they already had a mind of their own. Usually they are trailing along behind their Mama in a neat queue, but these ducklings were more playful.
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Oh, so sweet! and playing with the cotton seeds – how fun! I have to say that’s the only thing good about the cotton seeds. They are the worst thing for allergies.
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I knew you’d like these little ducklings Ruth. 🙂 They were so sweet and it was funny because they’d try to catch the cotton seeds in mid-air and fall back, but try again, then I should have mentioned that they seemed perplexed why the cotton seeds were fluffy in the air, but then in the water, all matted and plastered all over their bill. They were very young and tiny too. I could not believe how much they grew in 18 days. I have allergies, but to everything green in the Spring like grass, leaves coming out. I have been on allergy shots for seasonal allergies for decades, but I still take one Alavert 24-hour pill from mid-April to mid-June. It has no side effects (for me anyway), but helps to stop the sneezing.
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I take stinging nettle for allergies. It is a natural antihistamine.
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I have heard of that Ruth. I will have to read up on it. I take the Alavert for only two months, but would prefer not to take any meds, except the multiple vitamin and cod liver oil which I’ve taken for years.
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Quercetin is supposed to be good too. My husband just started taking that.
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I’ll look into that too. The box I take had 60 tablets and I finished it, so next time at Meijer, I bought a new box of 60 for Spring 2026. But, when I put into the cupboard I saw “new formula” on the box, which I missed at the store. I wondered why they had to mess with the old formula. I Googled around to see if people mentioned it and I was going to take it back as I didn’t open it. I am not keen on a new formula if it has side effects – that’s why I liked it as it was okay to drive with it, didn’t make me strange or sleepy.
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For stinging nettle you want to make sure it is leaves. Stinging nettle root is also sold as is whole herb but the roots have different medical benefits, one being a diuretic, so it makes you go to the bathroom a lot. Whole herb would be both leaves and roots.
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Oh I didn’t know that Ruth – thank you for clarifying that info. I had not looked at anything about it, just put the info you gave me yesterday away until Spring – but that is better than taking any pill if you can help it. I’m a firm believer in cod liver oil for keeping your immune system healthy. I have been taking cod liver oil since I was a young child – back then it was a malt which was thick like molasses, and I had a spoonful of it every morning with my breakfast – it tasted awful. The capsules are large, but no taste.
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Adorable duckling photos, Linda! You sure are dedicated to getting your shots.
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Thank you Eilene! I hope to get more duckling shots this Summer, but I am happy for getting photos of these very tiny cutie pies who were amusing me playing with the Cottonwood fibers.
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Those are simply adorable ducklings. I like the mama’s attitude and the nest you found. You were able to get some wonderful photos.
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Thank you Rebecca! I was happy to find these very young ducklings and watch them trying to catch Cottonwood fluff and wondering why it didn’t stay fluffy once it landed on the water. 🙂 Mama really was funny sounding a loud quack and with no response the first time, sounding it again. How funny, just like a human mom calling her kids. It made my day seeing these ducklings the first time and then again seeing them as “teenagers”.
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Nice photos of the ducks, Linda. Fun to watch them grow. The algae green glow is concerning. It is unusually more this summer or about the same as last year?
Glad you got some time to get out to what there was see!
Yorkie and I went to the bay front sea wall last week and took a few early morning walks in the neighborhood. It’s too hot for me. As I age, and have a-Fib, I have found that I don’t tolerate the heat as well as I did two years ago. The heat and humidity is really about the same, but my body has changed. ❤️your 🦆🦆🦆s
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Thanks Teri! I was happy to get at least one set of ducklings for 2025. I have some Wood Duck ducklings from May but they were too far away to see clearly. I will try to get back here again in a few weeks, because I find it odd with all the Mallards they have here at this park that there were no other ducklings.
I have heard that the algae is very bad this year and problematic for some beaches. They had warned swimmers not to go into the water for several parks for the holiday weekend. It should not be that bad here at Heritage Park as it’s a manmade pond, but it looked bad. We have had a heat spell which probably contributed to it and this area is not near the two fountains, so maybe that’s why. I also don’t understand why the algae is so bad as we’ve had a lot of windy days to move the stagnant surface of the water, plus we have had a lot of rain, torrential rain, so I’m puzzled by it to be honest. It looked worse than in the pictures.
I have not been out to big parks the last three weeks, just bopped here to Heritage Park and Emily Frank Gardens on July 4th – the Gardens did not have as many flowers as we had a cool Spring. They are usually at peak by mid-to-late July. I was there once and they told me to come back mid-to-late July for enjoying the walk and taking photos. The weather is wacky everywhere, but I don’t have to tell you that as you live in Texas and I have been watching the videos of the flooding which seem so horrendous to me.
It is better to walk in the morning – I don’t enjoy the heat either and this year, the heat was just uncomfortably hot, probably the same as last year as you say, but Sunday was 77 degrees at 7:00 a.m. and dewpoints of 70 already. That’s uncomfortably warm.
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You’re welcome, Linda. Just like the kids these days have a mind of their own early in life.
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That is very true Miriam!
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The water may look green and murky but those photos do look like an Impressionist painting!
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PS. Were they trying to eat the white fluff or just play with it?
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They were so cute Joni as they were like kids just playing with it. It would get plastered on their bills as soon as it got wet and I don’t think they understood why.
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Yes, all the swirls and such really made it look that way!
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What a nice leisurely story, almost reads like a children’s book. Either your regular walks are paying off or you have a calendar to remind you when to be on the hunt for goslings, baby birds, etc. Seems like a brief window where they are “babies”. Love the impressionist painting comment – sort of a positive spin on green goo. And the one photo where the gosling has done a furious 180 looks like a little motorboat!
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They were so cute Dave and watching them playing with the Cottonwood fluff was funny as they’d jump up, miss it in mid-air, then it would be wet and get stuck on their bill. This happened multiple times. I feel like I have a calendar in my mind … I always remember that goslings are born just before Mother’s Day and ducklings are born around Father’s Day, so that makes it easy for me to go looking for them. I did see some Wood Duck ducklings earlier in the season at a bigger park, but they were so far away and they blended right into the brownish-colored water. The swirls of green goo really looked like an impressionist painting. That little gosling looked like it was speeding through the water, then made that big turn and the wake behind it was incredible. It looked like it was on a mission of sorts. 🙂
I was happy to find the ducklings as I’ve not gotten out much in June due to the heat wave and rain/storms. It’s not been a great Summer here in SE Michigan and today the news reported that we’ve not had this many ticks since 2017 and it’s due to the rainy and hot weather. We have a stormy week coming up, off and on the next 7 days … I might be stepping out less and less.
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Loved the little ducks!
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They are cute aren’t they JP? It’s hard not to ooh and aah over them, especially when they are this tiny.
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hi – nature can be cruel sometimes and I guess part of the overall cycle of life… and cool to see the mallard nest and surprised the ducks were not bothered by or were oblivious to the muck and mire in that green goo!
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Yvette, yes, unfortunately things like this happen in nature, but to see it in front of your face and be reminded of it, like the missing duckling here,is sad. I follow a UK blogger who goes to a nature preserve daily to take pictures of waterfowl and twice recently he saw seagulls or terns swoop down and grab a duckling right in front of the Mama duck. I thought it was cool seeing the nest as well and I know they must have just hatched recently as we’ve had rain and high winds almost daily, which weather would not leave that nest intact so the ducklings hatched and plopped right over the edge of the seawall into the water. I was down at the Detroit River once and took a lot of photos of a Mama duck and a slew of ducklings that were looking for reeds or plants to eat and the water was so thick with algae and mud in the area where they were that I wondered how their little feet could paddle through it. The Detroit River is actually very clean, despite all the freighters that go through it, because it has a fast current, but this was a little cove and it was nasty.
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😉
thanks for the reply – and I hope you have a nice week
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Thanks Yvette – same to you!
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🙂🙂
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PS – saw this news story and thought of you….
https://www.aol.com/lifestyle/woman-leaves-squirrel-little-treats-210000481.html
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That was a cute story Yvette and that is definitely me … thank you for thinking of me and sending the link. I hope things return to normal at the Park one day. I am waiting for the construction of the sewers there to end and I will return. I still have bags of peanuts and a 10-pound bag of sunflower seeds I’ve not used yet. The last time I went there in early June, there was one squirrel and a pitiful-looking park, so I figured the squirrel and any others (like their offspring) will forage this Summer and I’ll return to feed them like before in the Fall. I do miss the interaction with them.
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:o)
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The little ducks are so cute! It’s amazing (and a little sad) how quickly they grow up.
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They are so sweet at that age Janis that you can’t help oohing and aahing over them. Ducklings are not too bad when they reach the “awkward teenage phase” unlike the goslings when they are all feet and a canoe-shaped body!
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Always you sharing your nature photography. Extraordinary photo shoot. I enjoyed the adventures of your duck family and was sad to learn one didn’t make it.
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Thank you Raj. This was one of my favorite posts – baby posts are always fun to compile and it was enjoyable watching them. I’m glad you enjoyed reading about the duck family. I also felt badly to see one duckling didn’t make it.
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You are most welcome. Why you badly see one duckling didn’t make it’.
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It was sad to know one duckling didn’t make it. Usually a Mallard hen might have eight to ten, maybe more ducklings. So it was sad to begin with that this one only had three, so it was easy to see one was missing. It was not nearby in the water or on the grass, so sad that it did not survive, though all three looked fine 18 days before.
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Cuteness overload with the duckling. I love how active they are swimming and the horizontal ripples picture was an amazing shot Linda! That darn algae bloom! My husband and I were talking about how we haven’t had a bad one in quite a few years.
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Thank you Diane! The horizontal ripples were just a lucky shot and I didn’t notice it until I had the images on the computer screen to be honest. 🙂 Happy to give you a smile with these cute ducklings who were sweet and full of energy. That algae bloom was terrible and only in one area of Coan Lake and a fairly large area at that. They really need to do something as this happens every Summer when it gets so hot. We had several lakes closed for the 4th of July holiday for swimming due to algae bloom – the beaches were open, but no swimming. We have had several instances of groups of Mallard ducks dying from ingesting water and green reeds from water with algae bloom … a few years ago someone went for a walk on a beach (can’t remember what lake it was) and found many dead ducks and the news had a story about it.
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Your ducklings are so adorable!!! It was interesting to see what the cottonwood fluff looks like. I wonder why I’ve never noticed this before. It must have been so much fun watching the ducklings figuring out what to do with the fluff. 🙂 Mama duck must have lots of energy to keep riding herd on her little ones. The mallard nest looks well used. It’s sad that one of the ducklings didn’t make it but you’ve made a lovely account of one of their early days exploring their world.
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I’m glad you liked this post Barbara and thank you for your nice comment about how I told about the duckling’s early days. I felt badly too when I saw one duckling didn’t make it. They were so adorable and full of energy. As to the Cottonwood fluff, I will have another post about a walk at Lake Erie Metropark where the fluff was in clumps about 12 inches or more. I wish I could have shown the ducklings in a video how they jumped in mid-air to catch the fluff as it fell down, their little legs and big feet paddling to stay afloat, but falling backwards. They seemed mystified by the consistency of the fluff changing from fluffy to bedraggled and plastering onto their bills. 🙂 Yes, Mama trying to keep her ducklings together was not going well. That quack was loud, then the second one – so funny. Like a human mom reining in her kids. I’m sure they had just hatched and left the nest as we’ve had torrential rain, high winds, storms – you name it, for weeks now and it would not have remained intact. That nest was almost right at the shoreline!
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You captured some great photos of that mallard and her ducklings! SO cute in that fluff-feathered stage. How sad that the three have become two. . .
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Thank you Nancy! They sure were cute little balls of fluff and I’m sure they had recently hatched as they were so small. They were so sweet playing with the Cottonwood fluff, just like kids at play. I felt badly about the duckling that didn’t make it. I looked in the water and near where the family was, HOPING it just wandered off by itself, but I did not see it. This is a large park and spread out, but the historical area around Coan Lake, which is just a pond really, is not that big and the parents and their offspring never stray far from the water at that age, I am thinking due to predators.
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Love it! May have to bring you back for a Michigan Duckie Project encore!!
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I remember that Andrew – I was excited to be there. 🙂 I don’t know why I’ve not found many ducklings this year. My duck highlight for this year, was stepping out of the car at a park in Dearborn and seeing a Wood Duck couple. I have gone to many marshes and large parks looking for Wood Ducks, only to find these two by a picnic bench, not in the water, just grazing. Sometimes photo opportunities just fall into your lap.
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