Ducks on Parade

My wife opened the front door the other morning and noticed quite a gathering on our driveway. These eight ducks were just lying in the middle of our driveway. By the time my wife was able to grab the camera and get a picture, they were dispersing the area. You can see seven of the eight here...


We think this might be an entire family, because each morning and evening, they always show-up and eat at our feeder together.

The Early Duck Gets the Feed

My wife and daughter were outside the other night refilling the bird feeders, when all of a sudden four objects came flying down from our roof. Heedless to the fact that there were people only a few feet away, they were determined to satisfy their hunger. Since I didn't want walk out and scare them away, here's a photo taken (sorry for the fuzziness) from our kitchen window of 2 of the ducks (with a gratuitous butt shot of a third) :-)...



These guys stuck around the entire time that my wife and daughter were outside. When the ducks were finished eating, they kinda just walked around... getting the "lay of the land."

Ducks on Parade

For her Oceanography class, my oldest had to do a field study report on a body of water and she decided to it on the canal by our house. This report and the data she collected needed to span a series of six weeks. So, one day when we were taking photos and getting water samples, we came upon a mother duck and her ducklings.

We think that they're Wood Ducks...



Here's a closer look...



These guys are quite a change from the usual Mallards we usually see. Oh, and due to our POS camera that cannot seem to take decent photos in sunlight, in order for you to see them better, I had to really lighten the picture using PhotoScape.

I Think We're Going to Need a Bigger Feeder

Yes, I was thinking of that famous line from Jaws when I wrote this. But, it's true! You can see, these ducks climbing all over each other trying to get at the food; quaking up a storm and just being, well...ducks.




In the photos, you can see some of the ducks running toward the camera and the other feeders, where there were an additional eight or so ducks gobbling down some food. We get this "duck convention" at least twice a day now, with more coming all the time. Usually it is 20 + ducks at the morning and evening feedings, with a few stragglers flying in throughout the day.




This is in addition to the plethora of other birds and squirrels that filter in throughout the day. Oh, and let's not forget the Starlings, who have just recently re-discovered our yard and remind me of yet another classic movie: The Birds.

Ducks Я Us

Yesterday, I was awakened by a loud banging sound coming from our roof. I figured that maybe Santa was paying an early visit this year (yes, I've been SO good), but before I could even get out of bed, I heard a commotion coming from our backyard. Looking out the back door, I saw fourteen (yes, 14), ducks fighting and eating from our feeders. That banging I heard on our roof, were the ducks landing and then taking off to finally land in our backyard.

We usually have only four to six, all pairs, feeding from our yard, so this mass invasion came as something of a shock. My wife tried to get some good photos, but with our POS camera, these are the best she could do. Unfortunately, the ducks flat-out refused to stay still for this photo-op...

Let Sleeping Ducks Lie

Here is the photo that I wanted to post yesterday...





Here's what happened to my site...

Somehow the coding got messed up. When I tried to post a photo (proper sized), it would bump the sidebars down to the bottom of the template. It would also not display anything after the photo-code. Also, it would not let me enter any coding.

I think (????) I know what happened. I enabled the new mobile-friendly code they (blogger) offered, but I did not continue reading that it is only for traditional blogger templates; mine has been highly altered.

So, how did I fix it? Well, I have a few testing blogs that I use to test new templates and new coding configurations. Currently, one of these blogs has the same template (minus all the widgets),as my main site, so I just deleted the template on my site and replaced it with the one on my testing site which solved the problem.

Quake Attack Part Deux

***NOTE: for some reason, when I placed this photo (properly sized) after the first paragraph, Blogger did not show the rest of the content AND it threw my sidebars to the bottom of the template, so I had to delete the photo until I can figure out what the heck they are doing. I will post the photo in a separate post when I get this mess sorted out. Thank you for your patience.


This is one pair of at least two that frequent our yard several times a day. This time, instead of sleeping in the grass by our back door (one of their favorite spots) they chose the feeder itself. Based on my vast duck-keeping experience, this is one way I know that they are probably out of food. However, last Saturday, they let us know in a more direct fashion.

Last Saturday, my wife was planting our veggies in the garden, when the ducks decided to pay a visit. They flew in and waddled over to the feeder to begin their mid-day meal. Unfortunately, there was not enough food, so Mr. and Mrs. Duck decide to take matters into their own beaks and go straight to the top...my wife. She watched them come over to the berm and then Mr. Duck climbed the stairs and, while looking directly at my wife, began quacking at her. He then walked down, looked back at her, then walked right back up and quacked again. Seeing that his point had been made, he walked back down where both he and Mrs. Duck gave a final admonitory quack and then flew off.

Needless to say, after my wife told us about this, she went ahead and restocked their their food supply. Later that afternoon, they came back and were perfectly content to enjoy their repast and settle down in the grass and rest.

Quack Attack

These ducks have become daily visitors now.

Taken just before he flew down to join Mrs. Duck, here is Mr. Duck on the roof of our neighbor's house...






Here are Koko and Yum Yum enjoying a little "Dinner Theater"...


If you look closely, you can see the ducks through the screen

Getting your Ducks in a Row

I looked out of the kitchen window today and I noticed that we had a few extra guests dining on our superior seed cuisine...