Question about why Mother Mallard stands & watches ducklings eat-but doesn't join in & why she stands where she does (1 Viewer)

[whatdouthink]

Hello all. Hope all you bird watchers are doing well. I have a question about Mallard behavior. For background, I live in a Mallard intense community near Syracuse NY. There is one pond in the middle of the town, a creek, and (sort of) a canal that meanders through the town and also runs the length of my backyard. Early summer a female mallard and 9 (now 8) ducklings started to hang in the backyard. I left them alone and didn't feed them for about a month (so they wouldn't imprint on me). But once they were a bit larger I started to spend some time near them and fed them some Kale, veggies & some bird feed. I also placed a small dog pool near where I give them treats. They got used to me & now associate my knocking on an interior window with food & usually emerge from the disgusting (runoff, etc) canal to get their snack. I have questions about 2 behaviors of the mom. The first is why she does not eat with the ducklings. She appears to be standing guard. Since the area does have predators (hawks, snapping turtle, etc) it's understandable she watches over the ducklings but surprising that she never partakes. The other odd thing is that she stands between the ducklings and the canal rather than between me and the ducklings. Perhaps she's sized up risks and views the risk of a high flying hawk or a snapping turtle emerging from the canal as greater than any risk I might impose but she seems poorly positioned to protect her ducklings. Perhaps standing away from the ducklings increases the odds that a hawk will see only her and not the ducklings thus she serves as a sort of decoy......anyone know or wish to speculate about these behaviors? Thanks for any information or musings you can offer.

 

[nartreb]

I speculate that she is watching the escape route. If danger appears, she will call her chicks to follow her into the water. She would not stand much chance fighting off a cat or dog, but she can tell her chicks which way to run.

 

[whatdouthink]

I speculate that she is watching the escape route. If danger appears, she will call her chicks to follow her into the water. She would not stand much chance fighting off a cat or dog, but she can tell her chicks which way to run.

HI . Thanks so much for the reply. That makes perfect sense. Eating would distract her from her watch and the position helps ensure a path for the ducklings if danger emerges. The danger is more likely to be from a predatory bird than from any large animal as they co-exist peacefully with the local deer and groundhogs. The only potential immediate threat is a snapping turtle (as shown in pic) that spends time on the same bank of the canal but even that does not seem interested in the ducklings (although there were a few more of them early on) and vice versa. Thanks again.

 

[nartreb]

I guarantee your neighborhood has cats, coyote, and foxes. Plus the really obvious threat: you!
A snapping turtle is never going to catch a duckling by crawling out of the canal onto the grass. They're ambush predators who wait for prey to wander within neck-length. (In fact they almost never go on land except to lay eggs or when seeking new mates)
I think your ducklings are now too big for any snapping turtle to eat. I'd be pretty surprised if any bird of prey attacked them either.

 

[whatdouthink]

I guarantee your neighborhood has cats, coyote, and foxes. Plus the really obvious threat: you!
A snapping turtle is never going to catch a duckling by crawling out of the canal onto the grass. They're ambush predators who wait for prey to wander within neck-length. (In fact they almost never go on land except to lay eggs or when seeking new mates)
I think your ducklings are now too big for any snapping turtle to eat. I'd be pretty surprised if any bird of prey attacked them either.

Yup That's why I was surprised that the mother duck didn't stand between me and the ducklings which would have meant the ducklings were closer to the canal and could have escaped more easily if the mom sent a signal to them and the mom could have watched me closer. Instead the ducklings were closest to me and the mom duck was between the canal and the ducklings. But it makes sense to me now.

 

[whatdouthink]

Thanks all who replied to my questions!