Wildlife Gardening: Duckling predators???, 1 by grampapa

grampapa wrote:
Our mallard pair had a beautiful family of 9, about 4 days old, that suddenly disappeared. At first I thought it was really cute when the hen came and literally knocked on my patio door with her beak (there are plants inside and she probably didn't know what to make of the glass). When I looked out and the drake was with her, but no ducklings, I realized they were looking for their babies. They had never come right up on the patio before. I know that things happen to tiny baby ducks, but what on earth would get all of the ducklings at once?