The mallards have moved in at our house! For several days, every time we went out the front door for our walks we were determined to go to the front bay window. Mom didn’t let us as she was afraid of what was lurking there. Finally, she let me check it out, and then she screamed and I jumped. A duck flew out from under the bay window! That is when we learned a family had moved in.
We like to name things around here, so we have named Mr and Mrs Mallard, Matthew and Melissa. For short we call them Matt and Missy. Our stuffed Mallard is very old, from Dayton’s Boundary Waters Collection and his name on his tag is Matthew Mallard.
While Missy is sitting on her little nest Matt hangs around in our front yard keeping watch.
Missy doesn’t like anyone coming near her. I scared her pretty badly when Mom let me check under the window. We never thought of a duck being under there. Mom tried for days to get a photo of her on the nest. She always flies away and lands in the road until we go away.
Finally, Mom was able to capture this shot of Missy on her nest. Because it is dark under the window and she is dark, it is really hard to see her live or in a photo. It is the best we could get.
How many mallards are they expecting? When Missy was away, Mom snapped a shot of the eggs in the nest. We count seven, but there could be more we don’t see in the photo. After reading about ducklings we think these will hatch in about two weeks. Hopefully we will catch them when they march off to find the nearest water a couple blocks away. Time will tell. For now we have to say Matt and Missy did not choose a smart spot to grow their family, but we are being gracious hosts and hopefully the eggs will hatch and then the ducklings will get started on their lives.