On Saturday, August 19th I returned to the Environmental Interpretive Center at University of Michigan’s Dearborn campus. I wondered what wildlife and/or wildflowers I might see in the Summertime. That will be an upcoming post. At the end of my excursion at that venue, I returned to Ford Field Park where I had parked my car. I heard kids squealing and assumed it was coming from the playscape, but when I glanced over, no one was there … ahh, it must be kids feeding the ducks at the duck pond. So I wandered over, thinking it would be a peaceful end to my morning meander and it would evoke a fond memory or two of my own childhood.
It is not the first time I’ve been to this tiny cove where water from a small pond near the Rouge River gently encroaches onto the sandy shoreline. I once chatted amicably as I sat next to an elderly gentleman on a park bench there. He had a huge bag of potato chips and had one chip for him, then a handful of chips doled out to the ducks who eagerly departed the duck pond and clustered around our feet.
Well, just as I predicted, it was kids giggling in delight as ducks gobbled up their offerings. Three young children were throwing pieces of pita bread to the ducks. I quickly surmised this had not been an outing specifically to feed those feathered friends, but instead they were breaking bread with them from the family’s picnic lunch. Pieces of pita bread were broken apart by a woman, whom I surmised was Mom. The children cupped their hands as she hastily broke up the bread. However, the ratio of bread bits to ducks was not so great. The ducks stood, poised at the water’s edge, at the ready for any piece of pita bread thrown their way.
I did take photos of the kids as they were excitedly interacting with the ducks and those pics were taken on the sly, but while compiling this post, at the last minute I decided to remove those images. There are enough darling ducks to gawk at here instead.
I’ve often mentioned in my blog that a fond memory of mine as a youngster was going with my parents to Toronto’s High Park and/or Oakville’s Coronation Park to feed the ducks. Unfortunately I have no photos memorializing those multiple excursions to use in this post. My parents often spoke of bundling me up in my stroller or a wooden sled my father made for me, but I really just remember running toward the water and throwing out stale bread and ducks waddling toward me in anticipation of more yeasty tidbits.
In those days, I don’t believe it was common knowledge that waterfowl can end up with a condition known as “angel wing” when ducks or geese dine on bread or sweet and salty, carb-laden snacks instead of nutritious food. I confess that when I began walking at Council Point Park ten years ago, I was not aware of “angel wing” and tossed out many a crust of bread or stale bagel bits to my feathered friends.
You will notice in these photos that, with the exception of a few larger Rouen ducks, all the Mallards are brown. This is because they were in “eclipse phase” which is part of the annual Summer molt. All Mallards lose their wing feathers and cannot fly for about a month. During this time period, the male Mallards (drakes) lack their colorful plumage, the distinctive iridescent green head, the brown bib of chest feathers and bright blue speculum wing coloring and look like female Mallards (hens).
Maybe they are all blah-looking, but not boring to watch.
Here are some of my favorite photos from that day.
We’ll start with the Rouen ducks which look like mammoth Mallards. The Rouens are domesticated ducks and sadly it looks like the few bobbing around in the pond were likely someone’s pets at some time. Their molting process is different than the Mallards – they molt several times a years.
Then we have a few Mallards – whether Mr. or Mrs. Mallard, I think they all enjoyed posing.
The bread enticed them to come ashore and to sneak a piece to enjoy in solitude.
All too soon the bread and the benefactors had departed … a few Mallard hangers-on lingered and looked my way.
I shrugged my shoulders and told them “sorry, I have nothing for you guys and gals.” They all waddled back to the pond and paddled away.
Never turn away from a ducky day at your local duck pond!
Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian fellow bloggers and Happy Columbus Day to the American bloggers.
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
The ducks may look dull, but you have lots of shots showing their personalities. Fun!
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Thanks Anne! They were very funny, all scrambling to get at the meager amount of treats and when one scored, he/she took off with it to dine alone. They really do have personalities shining through. 🙂
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Lovely photos. I always like seeing ducks, and you have some great captures.
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Thanks Dan. I like seeing ducks too and they were extra fun to watch on this day, all hungry for the meager amount of treats being tossed to them. They did pose nicely for me (probably hoping to impress me into sharing a treat with them, that I didn’t have). Next Summer I’ll have to stop by with some corn for them and get more pics.
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Yeah, it’s sad that the ducks can get sick from the food people share with them. I could almost hear all the quacking going on while you were snapping photos. You captured so many fun photos of them. I especially love the last photo – well composed, Linda! Happy Thanksgiving – I hope you have a great relaxing day!!
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Yes, it is Shelley and I used to feed them bits of bread before the big campaign of “what not to feed ducks” started circulating on social media. I actually have some photos of a few geese at Elizabeth Park that have angel wing. It’s not as noticeable in the water but when they step out onto land, you see it right away. I am mixed about using the photos – it is sad to see them like that. When I saw the photos, I originally planned to use that last photo as the header image and for the title “Never turn away from a ducky day at your local duck pond!” Then I changed it around at the last minute. I do like ducks and this was a fun way to while away an hour. Thank you – I was gone most of the day on a long drive, a long walk and lots more pics and didn’t make it home until late … I need another day off to rest. 🙂
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As you know, I support the take as many pictures as possible approach. You never know when they’ll come in handy. I wish I had your gift of having a plan for them or a post to use them in ideas as I take the photos.
I hope your long drive and walk was enjoyable! Funny you say you need another day off to rest. I felt the same way. That feeling is telling us to take more vacation, right!? 😉
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I’ve gotten into taking two pics the same in case one doesn’t come out … and not necessarily when it is a unique photo. Hmm. I wish I had asked the parents if I could use the kids’ pictures … they were really into feeding those ducks and the girl slid into the muddy shore as she was trying to reach one of them. If I sort out pics for a post and don’t use them, I generally pitch them – maybe I should start archiving them. I did have a great day yesterday but I was worn out by the time I got home and sat down. You are right Shelley – we have a weekend or a rare day off and try to cram as much stuff into it as we can. We do need to be off more. The car needed a run so that was good for it (and me too).
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I’m one that believes in the endless possibilities of photos taken. 🤣
That’s great you got out of the house and did something different for your day. I feel that same way when I do something like that. It’s fun, but tiring too! I hope you’re rested up now and ready for the weekend to arrive in a couple of days!
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I have looked at the scary stuff a few times and thinking I’ll hold most of them aside for now and just use one or two of the scariest ones … good to keep the other ones in “reserve” for a rainy (or scary) day. Yes, I wore myself out walking that day! Our weekend may be dicey … so may be just a walk in the ‘hood, though that’s not fair to the critters.
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Sounds like a great plan with the photos and the walks. The weather this weekend is going to be weird again!
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It is just plain wrong of Mother Nature to make rainy weekends! I have to walk around the raindrops, rather than in them. So many photos – I do have a grid to keep track of my walks (dates) for writing about them sometimes months later. Otherwise I could not keep them straight. I hope eventually to be more timely posting about walks. In the beginning when I used stock photo, or just one photo, or no photos, I posted the same day I walked. Even when I went to events like 5Ks, I generally posted about it the same day … something went awry along the way. 🙂
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I agree! That’s wise to keep a grid of your walks and dates and what photos you took.
You have a different groove now that seems to work well for you. Maybe when you retire then you can post same day?
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I have to do that grid Shelley as I’ve taken photos over the course of the Summer and Fall. I’d never keep them straight without a grid for what date, etc. and I always do a draft of my walk when I come home to pair with the photos when I sort them. I took a bunch of photos today. By the time I got home and sat down here, wrote a draft for multiple parks, but didn’t go thru the photos … it would be midnight. 🙂 We were supposed to have rain today, but when I went out this morning to walk at Council Point Park it was gray, then the sun came out full force, so I came home and got the camera and went on a long drive … that’s good, but more photos to sort (hopefully soon). Yes, I’d like to strive for a quicker turnaround like year ago, but back then I used to use stock photos that I bought or no picture and when I started taking photos myself for the blog in 2015, I rarely used more than one photo, so it was much easier to turn around a post more quickly. I still think I will just post twice a week except for holidays where I make an exception and do an extra post, but a better turnaround.
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You’re such a planner, Linda, I admire that about you.
Yay for a pop-up sunny day and more photos!!
It’ll be exciting to see how you tweak your routine when you retire. I’m/I’ll be taking notes 😉
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Thank you – I plan to go through this computer to ensure I didn’t miss anything. I have sorted all these walks and Wordless Wednesday posts out and will us them up … but then, going out on more walks with the camera complicates things a little. 🙂 Once I declutter, I will have more “me time” but how long it takes to declutter is a whole ‘nother story. I hope I am a good example. 🙂
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This is a very ducky post!
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Kate, yes, it was a ducky morning with these ducks. You can’t help but smile when you see all these ducks paddling around and I think since it is a park with picnic tables, lots of people must toss them “people food” as the ducks were really reluctant to go back into the water again. I couldn’t convince them I had no treats.
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Thanks Linda! No Turkey for me today……as per usual. I feel like Charlie Brown.
Raining today to boot.
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Not a ducky day for your Thanksgiving then Wayne – sorry to hear this. The rain puts a damper on any plans to enjoy the holiday, that’s for sure.
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the rain is gone now, so I’m having a Rib Eye BBQ for my Thanksgiving dinner!
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Finally you get a reprieve from the rain. So, can you salvage the evening and go out after your treat? I made a Tex-Mex crockpot dinner once for Thanksgiving!
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rain is back with a vengeance this morning. Streams will be getting back to normal!
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That’s a good thing Wayne, especially after your post detailing the dire circumstances if there was not enough rain and streams ran dry for the salmon run. The bears and eagles are happy!
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Ducks as pets? I don’t understand why, but then again you see a lot of interesting animals as “pet” these days. I had to look up “angel wing” to understand the condition. It’s a good PSA, Linda, else I wouldn’t have thought twice about throwing bits of bread to the birds myself.
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Dave, I never knew about ducks as pets until I was at Council Point Park several years ago, just before Christmas and two huge ducks waddled over and started nuzzling my knees. They were beige in color, tall, twice as big as a Mallard and I had only peanuts on me, having scattered seeds already. The next day I took crackers for them and I took pics of them and Googled around to find their breed. They were Khaki Campbell Ducks and Michigan Duck Rescue and Sanctuary told me they were domestic ducks, someone’s pets that were ditched and they would not survive the Winter. He told me to call him next time I saw them and he’d come retrieve them. I never saw them again and worried about those affectionate ducks all Winter. I have seen more geese with “angel wing” than ducks. I have some photos I took this Summer of geese afflicted with it – you notice it when they are out of the water. Those poor waterfowl cannot fly, so are easy prey. I don’t know whether I’ll use the photos or not as they are sad to see them and you saw similar photos when you Googled. Most parks have signs not to feed the geese and this is why. Also, if you feed them, when the food is gone, they will come after you for more – this happened to me and it was a bit scary to have a gaggle of geese trying to run me down!
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All of this is ignorance, Linda. Seems to me a very few animals are meant to be domesticated and the other 95% should be left to survive as the natural world sees fit. I’m not a fan of zoos but the educational aspect is valuable, if only to teach us to leave animals alone.
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I agree with you Dave – domestic pets should be as they have been for years: dogs, cats and birds. The problem with the ducks, especially the Pekin white ducks, is the breed is those yellow, fuzzy ducklings that people buy their kids for Easter. The duckling(s) grow up and are big, loud, messy and need room to run around, so people just dump them. If domesticated, then dumped, those poor ducks don’t know how to fend for themselves and likely will die from the elements and lack of food. Yes, zoos are educational. I like if they are natural habitat zoos which seems kinder to the animals. When I was a kid and even a teenager, my parents and I watched the “National Geographic” and “Jacques Cousteau” specials and I learned a lot from those shows.
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Aww what lovely pictures, I love ducks. We are lucky to have a local walkway beside a river which is full of ducks, swans, and recently a few moorhens that had babies 🙂
Where we visit there are places that (unless the water level rises) have sized banks so I often take down peas and sweetcorn (rinsed) and the ducks love them! The swans not so much as they are too addicted to bread I think.
visiting the ducks is one of those awesome childhood memories that so many people share 🙂
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Thank you Ari – it was so nice just to while away an hour watching the kids interacting with these ducks and the squeals and giggles when the ducks would come right up to them. I have to go back next Summer and take something nice to feed them, like you did. I remember a blogger who lived in England mentioned that she went to a park and fed the Mute Swans and had to buy swan food at this location. I had never heard of swan food before. This encounter did remind me of some pleasant childhood memories and I’m sure lots of people do remember such an outing from their youth.
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ooh I need to find some swan food! thanks for letting me know. 🙂
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You’re welcome Ari. I was amazed when I found out you could buy swan food!
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Lots of cute ducks, Linda! They are easy to capture with the lens when they’re feeding. Interesting about their mounting process! Hoping the salty food doesn’t harm them. Beautiful ducks!
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I like ducks Terri – they are always so friendly and yes, easy to capture images when they’re eating. (Especially the dabbling ducks with their ducktails.) 🙂 You can’t tell the Mallards apart after they lose their feathers and the new feathers are a blah brown.
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Beautiful ducks nice shoot the duck loos. Happy Thanksgiving 🦃 day.
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Thanks Raj, it was fun to watch them all competing to get the bread and thank you for the well wishes as well.
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Most welcome.
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This is a good story. It sounds like you had a good time that day, Linda. I hope you are keeping warm and dry today! I heard your weather went from Summer to Winter! Egads!!
It is a delightful low of 68 degrees here with light rain. I had a roofer put on two tarps with cement bags holding them in place which is all I can afford in regards to needing a roof replacement. I started a new book SAINT MAYBE by Anne Tyler that I picked from a take one leave one free library down my neighborhood street. Yorkie and I are enjoying the Fall.
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Thank you TD. I looked in my old photos, but I didn’t have one of me feeding the ducks, which was too bad as we went to the park all the time when I was younger. I have pics feeding a donkey though. 🙂 That doesn’t really count I guess.
The cold weather came in, hitting us like a ton of bricks. We dropped the 30 degrees predicted and then some … just a few days before it hit 83 and was hot and humid, then this … 41 degrees when I went out Sunday morning and similar temps this morning plus gusty winds both days (up to 35 mph) – ugh. I knew I would be sorry I complained about last week’s hot temps.
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Your picture feeding the donkey will possibly be good for another post. Yes, it would have be odd with this post focusing on the ducks!
Hard to believe that it is Winter there already!! Ugh…
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I actually did a post TD, but quite awhile ago, before you started following my blog. I went to the stable with the pony rides at Elizabeth Park. They take kids on pony rides and there is a small petting farm where you can buy a cone of critter food to feed the donkeys, goats and alpaca, so I stuck in a photo of me feeding a donkey and I just found the post to send to you – also I was feeding a billy goat as well. Good times when you are a kid. Here is the post to see the photos:
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Your parents took you on some fun adventures, Linda! These photos reminded me of my parents taking our family on a horseback ride through some state park. My two older brothers rode on horses same as my parents. I was only 6 or 7 too small for a horse so the put me on a donkey. I have no pictures and haven’t ever really thought about this.
Funny your pictures triggered a far long ago memory. There’s nothing special about that memory of mine. We were very fortunate that my parents were able to take us on lots of variety adventures. We did a lot as a family from time to time in our childhood well into our midlife years. I don’t know why my memories aren’t important to me. Odd I suppose.
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Yes, my parents did try to make things fun for me, especially since I was an only child. We used to go for picnics in Amherstburg, Ontario for years – a nice Sunday drive across the border and there was a stable we’d go to afterward and my father and I would go horseback riding there. Nice times – the stable had a fire and the horses were not injured, but the business closed there and relocated and we couldn’t find them.
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Just like I feel compelled to “MOOOOOOO” whenever I see cows, I must give a few “quack-quacks” in the presence of ducks. I’m sure they appreciate my attempt at communication. 🙂 Great pictures of your feathered friends, Linda.
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Ha ha – I do that too Janis. These ducks in the pond are probably used to people fawning over them and so they readily venture onto the shoreline to visit. The kids were having a great time throwing them pita bread bits and watching the ducks scrambling to get a piece. Glad you liked the photos – it was a fun stop for me.
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It’s always fun and relaxing to sit and watch ducks swimming. I know the excitement of the kids made it even more fun. I had never heard of “angel wing”. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. It was interesting to read about.
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It is so nice Rebecca and those kids were having such a good time, it really took me back to my childhood. I have to go there next Summer and see them again – maybe there will be ducklings to see as well. “Angel wing” is terrible and I see it more in Canada Geese than in ducks. I have taken some photos of geese with it, but am reluctant to use them since those poor geese are easy prey as they can’t fly and I feel sorry for them and their predicament. I never heard about “angel wing” until a few years ago when there were memes about what to feed ducks and that they like grapes and corn best but no bread.
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Miss Linda……………………………………………………thank you for the pleasant story and beautiful pictures of the ducks………………………….I never knew about: “angel wings” before………………….I always learn something new reading your blogs………………………………
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Glad you liked my ducky morning story Ann Marie – this is just a small pond off the playground area at Ford Park if you’re ever up that way (at Monroe Street, just off Michigan Avenue). It was fun to watch both the kids and the ducks. “Angel wing” is a serious affliction and unless ducks and geese have it when they are very young and can be fitted with a “wrap” to straighten out the wings, they cannot fly and are easy prey. I am happy to share that info with you as I fed the ducks bread for many years without knowing about it.
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A fantastic collection of duck photos, Linda! I love all the varied poses. You must have been having a great time clicking away as they were bopping around there hoping for more food. (It’s too bad so many people still haven’t learned about how bad bread is for them.) You can come back to these pictures whenever you want to reminisce about your pleasant childhood memories.
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Thanks Barbara – I’m glad you liked them! I had a tough time picking out which pics to use, but I knew the ones that didn’t make it to the blog post did kind of look the same. All the ducks were doing perfect poses – was I lucky! I wish I had learned sooner about bread being bad for waterfowl. I was off yesterday and after walking, I did some errands and got a couple bags of corn and some corncobs so I’ll share that with the ducks and squirrels respectively come Winter. The squirrels will rebel if I don’t put peanuts out at the same time. 🙂
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You got a lot of quaking going on here. I adore the little blue feather on the side of the one duck. Very stylish.
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Ally, like people, there is one in every crowd … dare to be different!
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It fascinates me the different kinds of ducks you see and you are just over the lake from us.
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Diane, I’m betting these larger Rouen ducks were people’s pets and left there. I hope they are okay for the Winter, like at Elizabeth Park where they have Pekins and Hybrid Mallards and they seem to be okay throughout the cold weather. We are unique with the ducks aren’t we? I had another Wood Duck sighting, a juvenile this time … so Mom(s), babies, juveniles but no Male Wood Duck with the beautiful colors – we know at least one Wood Duck must have been around and hopefully he was not just passing through!
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I’m back from holidays! and I missed reading your posts, your duck photos are cute and I love that you mentioned Toronto’s High Park, I love that park.
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Susan, I thought about you not long ago and went to your blog thinking I somehow got unsubscribed (as sometimes happens with other WP blogs) – nope, your last post was about the Tim Horton Museum, so then I figured you were camping and filling your camera cards with moose, loons and Merganser ducks and other good stuff! Welcome back! If you had our weather, you got an extended Summer for camping through the first week of October before it dropped 40 degrees. I’m looking forward to seeing your pics from your trip to Africa. I had fun taking these duck photos and watching those kids feeding the ducks. The ducks were posing so nicely too! Yes, I remember High Park, not from my sitting-in-the-stroller days, but we used to go there when I was older too and we lived in Oakville and would go to Toronto to visit my grandmother.
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I wish people wouldn’t do that, it is so cruel.
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I know it Diane. You can always find a place for unwanted pets (although in our city they are building a larger dog pound because the current one is too small, plus the new dog pound will have a place for cats too – we have many runaways and strays of dogs and cats). Ducks can be rehomed at a petting farm or sanctuary where they will not have to fend for themselves.
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I can imagine how excited the little ones were feeding the ducks. It reminds me of the grandkids throwing marshmallows to the chickens. The ducks did not seem timid at all – you got a lot of nice photos.
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Thanks Ruth – it was great watching those kids having a ball feeding he ducks. The squeals and giggles when the ducks march over to them and grabbed a piece of bread. It did me back to my own childhood, just like it reminded you of the grandchildren throwing marshmallows to the chickens … I never knew chickens had a sweet tooth. 🙂 I felt badly I didn’t have any treats for the ducks as they swarmed around us humans. I will take some corn next time because there is a little sandy shoreline where you can spread it for them to eat.
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When I was maybe 10, my father bought a couple of ducklings to add something to a large pond on his property. These ducklings were yellow and turned white. I don’t remember what happened to them – they probably fell prey to roving wild animals. I cannot imagine their white plumage was very good as camouflage. He should have bought mallards.
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You’re right about the camouflage aspect JP. And the Pekins are big ducks, so predators would likely go for them before the smaller Mallards. That’s a real shame. Two fellow bloggers had ponds in their yards and both decided to close them up because the herons would stop by and eat the koi and turtles in the pond. After putting netting across the pond to thwart the heron, but it spoiled the look of the pond, they just gave up.
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Thanks Linda for sending me the link to this post! Great pics of the ducks and for the information about the “eclipse phase.” That must be a vulnerable time for the ducks since they can’t fly.
By the way, your writing is so good! You use descriptive words and lead the reader with you to see what you’re seeing. I like that writing style. It seems easy but it must be hard to articulate it so.
I wonder what it’d be like to have a duck pet. Must be fun to see those little webbed feet pattering around the house. The other day, Elliot wanted to know what it’d be like to hold a duck in his arms and asked if he could hold one at the park. I said “no.” lol. But the white pecking ducks were pets before they were left at the park, so maybe those two?
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I knew you would like seeing this post Esther as you and the kids enjoyed the duck pond – I am glad you liked it and thank you for the compliment as well. I do love writing about my adventures … blogging opened up so many avenues for me … writing and photography, the photography especially since I didn’t take photos for many years, so it is a positive thing to do for myself. The eclipse phase makes them so vulnerable so they hang out together … safety in numbers. I don’t think that pond is too deep in case there were predators but it is a popular park for humans to picnic and use the playscapes, so I doubt there are coyotes around there. I really wanted to use the kids’ photos in the post, but thought I should not in the end, so omitted them, but reluctantly as they were so happy feeding them. I think ducks make loving pets – that guy at the Park last year with the two large Rouen ducks had them since they were ducklings and said they were just like a dog following them around and playful, loving pets. As to picking up and holding a duck, I would be leery in lieu of bird flu and transmission of the virus to humans, but that is me. I never touch or come near the birds when I feed them at the Park and I always handled the birdfeeders with gloves on back when I had them.
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