Wood Ducks

A mother Wood Duck was paddling around the Washington Valley Reservoir with ducklings about 2 months back. One problem with me blogging a couple months after taking a picture is that the ducklings probably look a lot older today; they might be adult sized by now. Still, ducklings (and goslings) are pretty photogenic.

It's doubtful that this duck only hatched 4 eggs this year; my impression is that duckling mortality is pretty high, and this is just her surviving clutch. There was a Great Blue Heron around; I suspect the heron would eat a duckling if one got too close. I suspect that the ducklings are perfectly safe in deeper water though, since herons fish/hunt by wading rather than swimming. On the other hand, the mother duck didn't seem particularly concerned to see the heron in the area, and the heron didn't appear to be giving the ducklings its attention. Still, I'm sure there are life-and-death dramas surrounding the lives of these ducklings.

June 11, 2021 at Washington Valley Park
Photo 136371275, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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