The duck in question (and a couple of her feathered buddies) adopted my friends Jami and Nancy last year. They just showed up one day at their house and never left. Being the welcoming family that they are, J & N bought the ducks feed and a pool so they could live the good life. They are not penned in or kept in any way other than with love and the feathered ones wisely chose to stay and thrived.
They did what all ducks do and just a few weeks ago look what hatched!
Sweet, downy, absolutely cute as a button, ducklings.
Look at that little one in front resting his head on a handy yellow (brother or sister) pillow.
I was given visitation rights and snuck up to the house today for a gander. The Mum was as super cool and as I was super stealth. Taking the cue from their Mother, the chicks watched me with their beautiful ball bearing eyes. The Mum was taking no chances however and after a while left her clutch for a closer inspection of the disturbance.
I kept quite still as she came about half way between me and her offspring. I knew she was sussing me out and
efficiency, with only a few ducky words she called to her chicks once she deemed it was safe for them to proceed.
Along they toddled at a leisurely pace with no panic or alarm to a safer spot, where no peeping
Tomess could capture their images for her own amusement. I was foiled from any more
paparazzi shots as they tucked tidily under the house and so I departed as abruptly as I had shown up.
The duck in question (and a couple of her feathered buddies) adopted my friends Jami and Nancy last year. They just showed up one day at their house and never left. Being the welcoming family that they are, J & N bought the ducks feed and a pool so they could live the good life. They are not penned in or kept in any way other than with love and the feathered ones wisely chose to stay and thrived.
They did what all ducks do and just a few weeks ago look what hatched!
Sweet, downy, absolutely cute as a button, ducklings.
Look at that little one in front resting his head on a handy yellow (brother or sister) pillow.
I was given visitation rights and snuck up to the house today for a gander. The Mum was as super cool and as I was super stealth. Taking the cue from their Mother, the chicks watched me with their beautiful ball bearing eyes. The Mum was taking no chances however and after a while left her clutch for a closer inspection of the disturbance.
I kept quite still as she came about half way between me and her offspring. I knew she was sussing me out and efficiency, with only a few ducky words she called to her chicks once she deemed it was safe for them to proceed.
Along they toddled at a leisurely pace with no panic or alarm to a safer spot, where no peeping Tomess could capture their images for her own amusement. I was foiled from any more paparazzi shots as they tucked tidily under the house and so I departed as abruptly as I had shown up.
6 comments:
Baby ducks and baby chicks are cute. The difference is that grown up ducks are still cute, or at least comical. They waddle and quack and will get very chummy with you. Chickens are pretty stupid actually and are not much as pets. When my kids were little we lived on about 2 acres and had chickens, ducks, and one time geese.
The chickens were worth having. The hens laid eggs and the little roosters made good eating. It didn't bother me to dispatch the chickens but I couldn't bring myself to off the ducks. One was particularly friendly and the kids made a real pet out of him. They named him Gwaham - as in Gwaham Quacker.
As you watch these little ducklings grow up you will be surprised at how quickly they grow. Right now they are just little peepers but soon they will be gangly adolescents. What is really funny is when they go from peeping to quacking. They are like an adolescent teenager whose voice is changing. You will see what I mean when the time comes. Enjoy.
Hahaha Hodge,
How very wordsmith of you to use the word Gander when talking about looking at fowl, you are so funny. It is also fun to read some ones blog when they are using good old fashioned words like sussed(takes me right back it does).
Try to make your freckles stay where they belong, once the freckles go the mind is not far behind.
All the best.
Paul. GG.
TG: Another difference between ducks and chickens would be how they wake up in the morning. Cock-a-doodle doo at 4am I can live without, but a nice gentle 7am quack-quack is a perfect alarm.
I'll defiantly keep checking in on these guys. BTW Gwaham is classic.
Hey GG: I've lived away from the old country for 27 years so I'm always happy when an old word comes back for a visit! So it's a bonus when someone is there to appreciate it/them :-)
These are lovely pictures and what prolific breeders! I kept counting different numbers and think I finally came up with 12 - poor parents with that lot to feed and teach.
Sorry but I don't understand the Gwaham Quacker, perhaps I'm tired after my Cotswold holiday but it is meaningless to me.
Oh it's lovely to be home again and back into the land of the blog.
I shall be commenting on Bill's (TG's) site tomorrow. I'm very impressed you got a comment from Garden Geezer, I have written on his site but he doesn't bother acknowledging (hint, hint, if you're reading this GG) I'm Leeds lass and Sharon's Mummy.
Mater x
Mater: Allow me to translate - A Graham Cracker is a most uninteresting American cookie (biscuit to you and me) that tastes like cardboard. Not a patch on a chocolate Hobnob! Wonder what the US readers will make of that one?
Thank you so much for your explanation Mchumbie - it takes an English lady to have the good manners to reply to a question!
Don't know about you but I love hobnobs - however, Sharon & GP are McVitie chocolate biscuit people.
Anne (Mater)
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