Meet Fred and Ethel. Five nights ago, we found Fred and Ethel in our back yard. We live four houses from the lake, so they were out taking a stroll. Apparently, they liked our place. Ethel did, for sure. She stayed, Fred left.
The next night we fed Ethel bread. As we were feeding her, we heard "honk, honk, honk" and she started honking and walking away. This honking went on back and forth until the two love birds found each other. They were now in the front of our house. We thought they'd be on their merry way, but no, they came back. They got within two feet of me and three of Thomas. Thomas filled a shallow bucket full of water and Ethel jumped right in and took a bath in front of us. We fed them a few more pieces of bread and went in the house to watch them from the window. They waltzed all around our back yard, but settled in the jungle area.
The next morning, Fred was gone but Ethel was under Bob's car. He made a lot of noise so she ambled along out of his way. She took turns hiding under our other car and our neighbor's car (The neighbor that speaks to us
Later that night as I was washing the supper dishes, I heard "honk, honk, honk." I looked out and there was Fred honking at my window. I grabbed Thomas and out we went. We followed Fred's honking until he met up with Ethel in the back. Again, they settled in the jungle area. This time we were prepared. We had purchased corn pieces from the store and fed them. (If you feed a cat, they'll keep coming back. How about a duck???)
Ethel isn't leaving. This has gone on for five nights. I hope she's nesting back there -- that would be wonderful for both Thomas and I to witness. I haven't spotted a nest yet, and she's still pretty active walking around. She should give 8-12 eggs and won't sit on the nest until they've all been laid. Then it's 26 days of waiting. How cute would it be to see ducklings?
I'm trying not to invade on them too much. We feed the ducks all the time at our lakes, they have bubble gum machines to dispense cracked corn. I figured that must be safe if the city put them up.
Anyway, if they're gone tomorrow, we've had a blast with them. It really seems as if they are in love. lol
8 comments:
How neat! the goose couple! What an experience!
I found you over at...Ragamuffin... I think. I, to, am homeschooling a twice-exeptional boy and 2 other boys that are twice execptional and on the autism spectrum.
I like that term-- twice exeptional... I hadn't heard it before...
Fred and Ethel look happy together!
http://steph-roomofmyown.blogspot.com/
Last year was our first spring here, and we had a mama duck and her ducklings come stay in our backyard for about a week (no daddy with them). The neighbors say she does it every year.
If Ethel is nesting, I hope that means my mama should be around soon! Hopefully Fred & Ethel will stay, you guys will love having them around.
We had a lot of fun watching and feeding our little guys, and we filled up the top of a turtle sandbox lid with water for them - they loved that! It was so cute watching the babies splash around in there and follow Mama around. :)
One word of warning...if she is nesting, you shouldn't feed her. The smell of food (food she doesn't eat) might attract predators. She'll leave at different times to feed herself far from the nest.
Remember we had a duck and her babies here last year? She (Martha) didn't come back this year, but we had a great time keeping track of her and watching her ten babies when they hatched. So sweet. They'll leave soon after they hatch so be prepared to take pictures right away!!
Tamy
Oh that's the neatest thing!
I hope they stay too,then we watch them through you:)
What fun! We had ducks awhile back and I've considered getting some for fun again. But I think we'll stick with Chickens at the moment.
They will come to where they've been fed before though so you could lure her round the house one kernel of corn at a time if she's nesting in the back!
Have fun!
You have been linked to in my latest post.....
Is Ethel still around and setting?th
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