Ducks in the Attic
Katie supposes I can type something up now that I have reconquered the blog publication maze, so I thought I'd share our most recent duckling story....
Last Thursday Katie was working on the sheep book on the computer, sitting in front of an open window for a cool breeze. She heard "cheep, cheep, cheep" -- too high pitched for all the poultry wandering around -- and thought, "the ducks are hatching!" We have two Muscovy ducks sitting on nests out in the barn, so it was a reasonable expectation. Sure enough, a little black and yellow duckling was wandering around on the driveway outside the window. So, Katie went out to see where its mamma was, and get them reacquainted. As she picked the duckling up, she heard more cheeping sounds from over by the 4x4. Three more ducklings wandering! She took them back to the barnyard and found one very hostile sitting duck in one corner of the barn, and a less hostile duck in the other corner. She put them with the less hostile one, thinking, ok, the eggs are just starting to hatch -- except the duck didn't seem convinced they were hers.
So, Katie comes back to the house, and hears more cheeping sounds. Have you ever noticed that birds are wonderful ventriloquists? They can make you think there is more sound coming from more directions than is earthly possible. So, she is looking around the side of the house where she found the first one in an attempt to find out where the duckling(s) is/are -- and a duckling lands next to her. From the roof.
(At this point everyone has said, too bad it wasn't a chicken, and you could have called it "little" -- bad joke, I know.)
So, ok, it looks like maybe those four ducklings don't belong to second mamma, but to a third, unidentified mamma who has a nest somewhat vertically located from where we have been looking. Katie can't find a ladder, so climbs the trellis to the porch. The nest is NOT on the porch roof, but there is a broken window going into the attic....mamma duck wouldn't have, would she?
Meanwhile, yet another duckling has landed on the ground, so Katie puts all of them into the tub we raised the last ducklings in, and calls it a night.
Friday comes, and we can't track down a neighbor to borrow a ladder, so resourceful Katie decides to attempt the attic from the inside access hole. She crawls into the attic with a rechargeable lantern (courtesy of Woot, but that's another story), and discovers that there are more than a couple ducklings wandering around -- in fact, there is a large bunch in the corner. She comes back down, gets the bucket she put the other rescued ducklings in initially, and hauls it up to the attic. She grabs ducklings by the handfuls -- and 15 ducklings later, has rescued them all. Then she finds the nest with 5 dud eggs, brings all of that down with the ducklings, and puts all 21 ducklings in the tub with water and food. No sign of mamma duck in all of this -- she obviously figured she had done her duty, and was through. We haven't quite figured out which of our *other* female Muscovy ducks did the deed.
Pictures to follow when we figure out where a battery for the camera is....
Last Thursday Katie was working on the sheep book on the computer, sitting in front of an open window for a cool breeze. She heard "cheep, cheep, cheep" -- too high pitched for all the poultry wandering around -- and thought, "the ducks are hatching!" We have two Muscovy ducks sitting on nests out in the barn, so it was a reasonable expectation. Sure enough, a little black and yellow duckling was wandering around on the driveway outside the window. So, Katie went out to see where its mamma was, and get them reacquainted. As she picked the duckling up, she heard more cheeping sounds from over by the 4x4. Three more ducklings wandering! She took them back to the barnyard and found one very hostile sitting duck in one corner of the barn, and a less hostile duck in the other corner. She put them with the less hostile one, thinking, ok, the eggs are just starting to hatch -- except the duck didn't seem convinced they were hers.
So, Katie comes back to the house, and hears more cheeping sounds. Have you ever noticed that birds are wonderful ventriloquists? They can make you think there is more sound coming from more directions than is earthly possible. So, she is looking around the side of the house where she found the first one in an attempt to find out where the duckling(s) is/are -- and a duckling lands next to her. From the roof.
(At this point everyone has said, too bad it wasn't a chicken, and you could have called it "little" -- bad joke, I know.)
So, ok, it looks like maybe those four ducklings don't belong to second mamma, but to a third, unidentified mamma who has a nest somewhat vertically located from where we have been looking. Katie can't find a ladder, so climbs the trellis to the porch. The nest is NOT on the porch roof, but there is a broken window going into the attic....mamma duck wouldn't have, would she?
Meanwhile, yet another duckling has landed on the ground, so Katie puts all of them into the tub we raised the last ducklings in, and calls it a night.
Friday comes, and we can't track down a neighbor to borrow a ladder, so resourceful Katie decides to attempt the attic from the inside access hole. She crawls into the attic with a rechargeable lantern (courtesy of Woot, but that's another story), and discovers that there are more than a couple ducklings wandering around -- in fact, there is a large bunch in the corner. She comes back down, gets the bucket she put the other rescued ducklings in initially, and hauls it up to the attic. She grabs ducklings by the handfuls -- and 15 ducklings later, has rescued them all. Then she finds the nest with 5 dud eggs, brings all of that down with the ducklings, and puts all 21 ducklings in the tub with water and food. No sign of mamma duck in all of this -- she obviously figured she had done her duty, and was through. We haven't quite figured out which of our *other* female Muscovy ducks did the deed.
Pictures to follow when we figure out where a battery for the camera is....
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