whatdouthink
Well-known member
A few days ago I posted a couple of questions about Mallard behavior on a thread on this site. Perhaps they were put off by my talking about them but a day or so after I posted the questions the mallards that usually cruise the canal and hang in the duck pond vanished and have not returned. I figured they were probably hanging out in the duck pond in the middle of town. Turns out they are not. Further, there are almost no ducks in the pond that only a few days ago was filled with ducks. There are usually tons of ducks on the pond, especially through the summer. There are also usually geese. The geese were there in their usually numbers. There were about 20 mallards in the larger pond area that usually has hundreds; there were essentially three small groups of ducklings with one parent each. There were 2 ducks in the smaller pond that usually has dozens. These are wildlife mallards-that fly freely in and out of the area. Yet, I've never seen them just disappear this early in the summer in one day and remain away. Is this a sign snow will start early...like August? I doubt the cause is a predator since the geese seemed to be plentiful. Any ideas what might cause nearly all the mallards to leave an area that they usually inhabit in the middle of the summer? (I have not seen any evidence someone is having a huge feast either). Would love to hear your speculations. Thanks!
