Duck!

 

Here's the consequences of being late on one of my normal garden
tasks: pulling/grubbing out the grass and common daylilies that
keep invading the veggie garden from the neighbor's yard along the
west fence.

Last Sunday I pulled and hacked part of the way along the fence.
Skipped the next day to work in the flower beds.  Then the rains
came.  Finally Friday dawns clear and back to the veggie garden
to do some more work.  

But first, run the perimeter to check the electric fence wire, because
it's time to reinstall the charger.  So I'm walking north along the
west fence, walking toward the area I cleared on Sunday when a
mallard duck explodes from the ground at my feet!  Holy crap!

Right at the edge of the uncleared area was a nest with seven eggs
in it.  And I don't think she's done with the clutch.  How the hell was
she intending to get those ducklings anywhere?  The whole fence
bottom is lined with chicken wire (to keep the baby bunnies out).
The last thing I need is a small horde of ducks rampaging through
the lettuce or newly-sprouted corn...

(One spring few years back, a duck and drake turned out the be
the critters that  ruined my first planting of snap peas.)
--
Pat in Plymouth MI
    
"Vegetables are like bombs packed tight with all kinds of important
nutrients..."     --Largo Potter, Valkyria  Chronicles
 
email valid but not regularly monitored
  

 

Pat Kiewicz said:


Following up my own post:

My daughter recruited my neighbor (who has done some wildlife
rehab-ing in the past) to take the eggs for incubation. Ducks are
apparently very good at finding safe, hidden nest sites but really
don't have any clue when it comes to making sure the ducklings
will be able get to the nearest body of water.  (He told us about
the time he had to catch a duck and her ducklings that had hatched
from a nest hidden in a planter by a busy office complex.)

And so this afternoon we will be doing double-pace work to trim
back the overgrowth along the fence...and hoping she moves on.

--
Pat in Plymouth MI
    
"Vegetables are like bombs packed tight with all kinds of important
nutrients..."     --Largo Potter, Valkyria  Chronicles
 
email valid but not regularly monitored
  

 


I'd have bought lettuces and peas and considered myself to be lucky to do
that if I could only get a wild duck to nest in my veggie garden.

 

FarmI wrote:

What would you pay for swamp hens to steal your horse feed?

David

 


:-))  I'll pass on them thanks as we already have some on the back dam.  We
also don't have horses any more and we tried not to feed them a great deal
when we did (except if in work) - just enough to keep them coming up to us
each morning so we could check them over.  The horses were quick to eat
their food and never let the swamp hens near their food.