They Need A Bigger Nest (Maybe Bigger Pond?)

This evening I happened to look over the rail of the deck down to the edge of the pond below. When did all this happen, right under our noses?

They had noticed my presence by the second image and she had covered up the exposed chicks. The dad is still in the picture here, although typically they are reported to desert the brood after incubation is complete.

Postscript1

I wondered if my brief intrusion on their family scene had messed them up at all, but this morning they were all motoring across the pond with chicks splashing and paddling furiously with wings and feet to keep up with the parents. There are 15 ducklings, making this at the extreme large end of Mallard clutch size. The female typically lays eggs weighing in total over half of her body weight.

Here are three more images, showing the duck equivalent of our emergency duck and cover drills. In the first, they have just noticed the big meanie on the deck, and mama gives her best 'follow me and circle the wagons' charade. In the second, they are seen streaking for cover, mama using her bill in good herding-duck fashion to keep the babes in line. In the third, mama instructs them how to spread out and disappear into the grasses, their 'hide' on the other side of the pond (away from the big meanie). You might imagine the dad would be making a display, attracting attention away from the brood. Nah. He's on his sabbatical, floating along oblivious to the excitement.

Postscript 2

Mama keeps the ducklings hidden in the grasses for long periods, but today after three days of no sightings, she was observed calling them out to her. They paddled as a group out of sight to the far end of the pond.

It's not clear what they eat or how they are fed, but perhaps, even at this small size, are self-sufficient at grabbing high-protein aquatic arthropods in their grasses.

Nature is impressing us through the apparent competence of this duck pair to handle the stresses of raising a large brood on such a small pond. Fortunately, predators seem scarce at our pond. We've observed no large snakes, only a couple of raptors, no racoons or opossums. There is a yellow cat that spends a lot of time at water's edge near our yard, but I've never seen it go to the other side by the duckling hide.

Postscript 3

Yesterday I saw the mama with only six ducklings on the pond and was concerned. Today, seven days after first sighting, she's back and there appear to be twelve ducklings with her. If this is the same mama as we originally saw, I'm thinking the crows must have taken the others, although I'm not sure how they got at them. There have been several crows taking more than usual passing interest toward the edges of the pond. The yellow cat may still be a suspect also.