Duckling predators???

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?

Big turtles?

It's early enough in the year that your ducks may start again.

In my area, we once had many mink farms. Over the decades that these mink farms were fully operational, there were many escapees. These escapees take a tremendous toll on the ducklings in this area.

If you have mink in the area, they could be the predeator.

The feral/stray cat is a predator as is the raccoon, badger, weasel, fox, coyote, and skunk. Hawks, herons, owls, snapping turtles, some snakes, and some fish will also negatively impact their survival. Unfortunately, almost any critter larger than a duckling will try to eat it. Which one gets them depends greatly on where they were nesting.

Loons harass ducklings and goslings and will kill them if provided with the opportunity to do so. They don't eat them, they simply kill them when they can get to them. Watch the behavior of Canada Geese swimming with goslings when a Loon is around. They begin moving their goslings toward protected areas. There are many documented reports of loons harassing and killing ducklings and goslings.

It is unlikely that a predator got all 9 ducklings at once. This is sounding more as if weather conditions combined with 4 day down played into the equation. I'm really sorry.

Lauren, thanks for all the good info. the weather has been really good (cold at night, but no freezes or anything harsh), we don't have loons. We only have one nesting pair of mallards on the manmade lake in our little suburban subdivision, so I hate to see this happen. I know 2 years ago they had at least 3 nests with eggs that were raided and never successfully hatched any. I assume 4 day down is a disease?

today I found a gosling (Canada goose) head in my garden. this seems like a mammal to me. we had killdeer nesting inside our pool fence and something got the eggs last week. and I also saw pieces of blue egg shell in the garden today...probably robin eggs. I've heard there have been coyote not too far away. and I know there are fox in the fields nearby.

I don't know what to think because the parents are still alive so that somewhat rules out disease. I just don't think it's a predator when there were 9 ducklings. Even a fox would have trouble grabbing all of them over night.

Have you or any of your neighbors recently sprayed any chemicals around?

Just for the heck of it, what are your water temps in that pond? My guess on this is that their down couldn't insulate them from the water temps and they died from hypothermia. They were only 4 days old and little ones can die of hypothermia even if the outer air temps are warm. Remember, we had some really cold weather before it became unseasonably warm. Even my ponds right now are considerably colder than in subsequent years. Ducklings need a lot of cover around a pond otherwise the parents will try to keep them in the water to protect them from land predators. I guess the parents may have been in a tough spot. Take them to shore and risk the coyotes or leave them in the water and risk hypothermia and ultimately drowing. Yup, ducklings can drown.

What we have done the few times we have had Mallards nesting here is that we have gone out and located their nest and staked the area around it with metal stakes and chicken wire. Then we train a flood light on the area with motion detectors. That helped. It was feral/stray cats and coyotes going after our ducks. We did find a big snake trying to get into one of our Wood Duck nest boxes though so a baffle we had created from a local sheet metal place took care of that. We did ultimately take the Wood Duck nesting boxes down but that was because of English House Sparrows not other predators.

For you I have a thought, are you or your husband handy? What about some sort of a floating island that could be anchored 15' away from shore that has an easy up for little ones? Something like a partially submerged ramp so they could all get up on the floating island? I wonder if anyone has tried something like that. It makes sense to me and I think the parents would use it.

Nobody issued the shark sound bite from jaws? I have caught Northern Pike with ducklings inside.

But Mark, have you ever caught one that had 9 (nine) ducklings inside? That's a lot of ducklings. Even the Northern Pike has to take time to swallow.

My bet's on hypothermia for the simple reason that ducklings don't get their contour feathers for a while. Without contour feathers, they have little or no water repellency. That down isn't exactly water proof in part because they don't produce preening oils. Their mother provides them with preening oils from her body when she sits on them or when they huddle. That oil from her feathers only lasts so long and has to be "reapplied" for lack of a better term by her sitting on them again before they take to the water. This is exactly why ducklings hatched from incubators sometimes drown when people try to place them in water.

Here's a little something I found on the Internet that explains it better-
http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/207/26/4551

Lauren, I'm not sure where their nest was, but it wasn't on our property. possibly next door. there is very little cover as most of the neighbors have tried very hard to eliminate all of the vegetation at the edges of the lake. it's quite sterile. many of them have rocks. I have some purple loosestrife to get rid of and then I'll be adding some more appropriate plantings so there will be more cover.

the island does make sense, although neither of us are even close to being handy. maybe I can get my son or someone else to do it. when they were having so much trouble with their nests being raided I was thinking of building one of the nesting boxes that floats at the edge of the water away from predators. but then last year they raised a nice family successfully. the lake (it's barely a pond...manmade for flood control) is small where we are and they can cross it very quickly, though. they are so fast.

we don't use chemicals, but the neighbors probably do. I'm sure they do across the lake. it's a co-op situation, and the co-op maintains the lawns.

Mark is the nesting box guru. I'm thinking maybe we can ask him to think of something. I know we used to have floats out at the lake where I grew up and at the JCC summer camp. Why not floats perfectly sized for Mallards that have an easy on/off for juveniles? Just a thought. I think it's doable!

The Northern Mallard Cylinder will only set you back about $100.00. Looks like most folks could build one at a much lower price.

http://www.dakotanesting.com/order.htm

The Northern Mallard cylinder looks great. I spotted some nice Wood Duck nesting boxes at that site also. The floating nest looks awesome if an on/off ramp could be added that little ducklings could use to get out of the water. Great detective work!

Did you get my e-mail with your new password? Let's see that house of yours.

Fowlerville has five or six baby Bluebirds, one TRES nest with 5 eggs, one with three and one ready to go any day. I suppose that the HOSP will get most of them. I had 17 PUMA nests on Saturday which equals last year's numbers. On the 14th of May last year I only had 11 nests started. This should be a good year if I get lucky. We are adding an additional 8 compartment house tomorrow to the site.

Time to go to my spam account! Better yet, why don't you come over and visit the PM Mansion yourself and we can sit around and worship it. The new house is wonderful... wonderfully vacant. I guess me and Jeff can sit around and cry in our spilt milk!

I've been called a lot of things around here, but never a SPAMMER!!!

I told you that it wasn't going to be easy! Are you playing the Dawnsong at 4:30 AM? :)

How many HOSP this year?

100+ with thousands to go. This year the European starlings seems to be particularly bad.

I'm generally up by 6am every morning to get out of the house. You're an hour ahead of me remember. That was actually around 5:30 am.

I need to go and dig you out. I need my password.

thanks, Mark. that's the one I was looking at. the only problem is the depth of the water fluctuates. I think I also saw a floating one. they have a floating goose island

Intresting thread. We see all kinds of babies numbers dwinde here. I think that is why they have so many so a few survive. The Swans seem to have the toughest time reproducing. We have seen 7 reduced to 1 making it to adult. Turtles, pike, eagles, fox, weather etc. all are hard on the little ones. I did not know about mink, we have them here too, and loons too.
Some of course never make it to the waddling stage. I see a few duck nests way out in the woods. They generally get raided, sometimes mama feathers all over too. It is nice to see hatched eggs left in the nest once in a while. Tough life out there.

I have some really sort of bad news.... the swans you are referring to are probably the Mute Swan (Cygnus olor). Volunteers are being trained to control and manage them because they are part of the reason why native duck populations are dwindling.

Although very beautiful, they don't belong.

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/muteswans.html

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialanimals/muteswan/index.html

This is true. The wildlife people collect the eggs here, but do not get them all, seems the preditors get the babes. I have seen eagles get the young ones. It is quite a sight to see.
Our geese are pretty high in numbers too. The wildlife people round them up and relocate them. Seems they just fly back when they can.
These little goslings are doing well. They numbered 4 a couple weeks ago and there are still 4 as of this morning.

Nice pic. several of our goslings have gone missing (besides the one I found in my garden). but they are certainly in no danger of being short in numbers. it's the mallards I am concerned about. there has been a definite decline in the Great Lakes area and I am looking to encourage them here.

Our ducks seem to be on the rise here on our lake. We had more ducks last year than I had ever seen before. They seem to be increasing greatly. Not only the mallards, but the wood ducks, goldeneye, teals, merganzers etc. I love seeing them, but I also know that not all the babies can survive.
I hope you can get yours back up to normal levels. It is worrisome to see a decline, like our ruffled grouse, or pheasant.

I love all of the pics.

Kim

We have a big lake at work and we have over 300 Canadian Geese there.

In the spring and fall we see over 400 at a time. This past fall there were 100-200 mallards as well swimming with the geese. Our lake is pretty small, but the area they rest is marshy and they seem to like it. I think the geese and mallards are doing well here dispite the preditors.

Hey Pepper,

There is no such thing as Canadian Geese. Hint - I'm really a pest when it comes to proper terms, etc.

Mark

LOL. Ok, I amend it a little. They are called Canadian Geese here but there are several species out there. Don't ask me what ones we have cause I have no clue. They all look the same to me.

Canada Geese!

Bad news Mark, everyone around here calls them Canadian Geese too. I know it's supposed to be a Canada Goose or Canada Geese but we all still refer to them as Canadian (running to duck for cover).

LOL. Thanks Equil!!! Even our walking Encyclopedia at work calls them that. By the way that would be Alan Branhagan, Direc of Horticulture where I work. Also has written a book.

I don't care if everyone's wrong as long as they admit that I'm right! ;)

LOL!!

Mark, you are right! (I have to admit, it bugs me, too, when people say Canadian geese, but it's so prevalent, you might as well get used to it).

A friend was over and called them Canada geese. I was taken back for a moment, then realized that was the proper term. I am trying to change, but it is hard to teach this old puppy.

I have an even bigger pet peeve. It is published in major birding literature and it is dead wrong. I still cannot convince everyone that I tell about it and some folks get down right mad. People call House Sparrows a member of the Weaver Finch family. Even the North American Bluebird Society states this. HOSP are not a Weaver and not a Finch. If you look at the taxonomy for all of these birds they are not related. The problem started years ago when taxonomists mistakenly lumped HOSP in the Weaver Finch family. In the 60s it was corrected. You would think that 40 years later more professional birding organizations would have corrected this error.

I didn't know they housed the sparrows with the finches. That's just plain weird to me. lol.

As for disappearing ducklings, they have that happening at the lake at my sister's condo community. I watched someone catch a HUGE catfish there one day, and I'll bet they come up for a snack once in a while. Mother Nature can be cruel.

Our swans did have a baby this year. Never saw mama on the nest, but there was this little tiny white guys swimming around and daddy all puffed up in his protection mode. He was such a cute little guy. Yesterday, he was just floating in the water. The swans swam by him over and over, but he was gone. Who knows what happened.