Today I went to the park to see the mama duck and her babies that I have been keeping my eye on for the past week. When I first saw them, there were 18 ducklings. Today, there were only 13, which made me sad.
The mama and her babies swam to the edge of the lake and seemed to be taking a rest, when a mother and father goose started heading in their direction...along with their babies, who were much bigger than the baby ducks
These baby geese are so cute!
The poor mama duck and her babies were scared, and hopped up on the bank and took off. The geese were actually chasing them down, scaring them away. When I got near to the geese, the mother and father goose started hissing at me. Here you can see the geese running across the sidewalk. What you cannot see is that they are actually chasing the mama duck and her babies into the woods.
After the geese chased the ducks away they headed back toward the water, jumped in and swam away. It was as if they had gotten out of the water just for the purpose of harrassing the mama duck and her babies.
After this, I went to check on the mama duck and her babies, but I didn't see them. I imagine they were hiding. And I can't help but wonder if these geese might have had something to do with some of the missing baby ducks. I don't know if a goose would kill a baby duck or not...but the geese didn't seem too friendly.
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Comments: 19
great pictures
The little ducks and geese look so fluffy in your pictures.
Myke
Geese, and many other animals like birds and mammals are very protective while they are raising babies to the point of being aggressive because there are a lot of dangers out there for those babies. The goslings have two parents raising them, and the ducklings have only one, which would seem to favor the geese getting the better over the ducks in a territorial dispute. After the goslings are grown, Canada geese will step aside when they encounter humans and hardly make a sound.
I think it's more likely the missing ducklings are the victim of creatures that eat them like hawks or of an accident, such as falling into a window well, which I've seen happen.
I love the little black caps on the top of the Canada geese goslings.
Thanks so much for posting this to
my group
I'd love for you to post this photo essay to *My Bird Macro* !
I have lived here a year and still marvel at the beauty and piece. Observing birth and dying, a spectacular cycle that completes the definition of life. I started a grave site for the wild dead animals. So far, I have buried 5. Out of the five, 3 were ducklings, a gosling, and a baby female Blackbird.
The first baby duck I observed was with his or her sibling; one bright yellow, the other brown, more like the mother. Every day, for four days I would see the mama duck take her babies around enjoying the water and avoiding possible predator's attacks of her babies. I prayed every night they would be safe.
On the fifth day, I found the bright yellow one on the bank. He was still warm. It looked like his eye had been pierced and right below the bloody wound, another puncture wound. It was really sad. The many geese and their offspring were in the vicinity earlier with the mama duck and the ducklings. The ducks always hung with the geese (there were 3 ducks total that hung out with the geese, and only one of them was male) and got along beautifully, no territorial issues.
I kind of suspected these geese killed the duck. I had found another duckling dead near the 11 eggs that the mama is sitting on and it, too, had pierced neck wounds. The third I found, yesterday, alone on top of the 8 eggs that the mother had been sitting on, dead. He was still warm. It was as if the mother smothered it. It had no wounds. It looked like it was sleeping, but the mother was swimming around alone over in the other pond. It is so sad to me, but I guess it is nature's roles.
However, like most of you, I never have witnessed it happening, so I really do not know. Any thoughts?
Idell
Idell
Nature Lover