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Everyone is welcome at our backyard buffet.
We feed birds, deer, ducks, woodchucks, fox, raccoons, skunks, a sometimes opossum and the occasional pheasant.
We never know who’ll show up and in what combination.
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Fox and duck is an odd one.
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In normal circumstances fox would eat duck.
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But with a steady food supply…
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They’re dining partners instead.
😊
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Our resident male mallard duck likes the deer grain.
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He really likes it.
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He likes it so much he climbs into the bowl and guards it.
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And quacks loudly if anyone gets near.
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I think he’s pooping in it as well….
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Which would explain why the deer haven’t been eating it lately.
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When there’s a summer thunderstorm on the horizon? We head for the barn porch.
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And if it’s cocktail hour?
We add an adult beverage.
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This particular storm was disappointing as all the good rumbling stayed to the north…
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But the gentle rain brought our old friends the ducks to the backyard and they’re always fun to watch.
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I don’t know how long mallard ducks live but we’ve had this visiting pair for close to 4 years now.
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When there’s rain and puddles? They plop right down and make themselves at home.
❤️
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We live in Maine, ergo we watch (and love) the Red Sox.
But it seems like we’re not the only species to do so.
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This was the scene at a recent game. And in typical nothing bothers New Englanders fashion, play continued even though a pair of mallard ducks had landed right in the middle of Fenway Park.
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Being Boston fowl, they made themselves at home in the outfield, munching grass and doing what ducks are apt to do.
Poop.
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But hey, the Sox won the game… so no one was complaining.
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We didn’t have much snow this winter so our spring isn’t as wet as it usually is. No snow means no melt which means no big backyard puddles for our annual visiting pair of ducks to splash.
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But here they are.
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Mr and Mrs Mallard checking out the fallen bird seed under the feeders.
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No water meant they didn’t stay long, but it was nice to see them again.
❤️
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Just when I think I’ve seen every silly product ever made? This.
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I never realized ducks were such deep thinkers.
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I also never knew you could own one and plug him in.
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And now you know as well. You can thank me later….
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The visiting pair of mallard ducks hasn’t been spotted at Casa River for a few weeks now… so I figured it was getting too dry and they’d moved on.
Until the other day when I was out mowing the front lawn and saw this:
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Momma duck and 13 babies!
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She sashayed across the lawn and headed right for the road … in front of an oncoming car which had me ditching the mower and running into the street waving my arms like a crazy person.
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She tried crossing three times and three times I had to stop traffic only to have her duck ( pun intended ) back on the lawn.
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Fourth time was vehicle free.
Momma and babies made it safely across.
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Buffet buddies.
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Momma chuck and the mallard pair seem perfectly content to share.
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Even if they do bump into each other on occasion.
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Lord knows the birds drop enough seed, nuts and fruit from the feeders they’ll never run out of snacks.
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You never know what kind of birds will show up at our feeders in the morning.
Cardinals? Check.
Bluebirds? Yup.
Ruby Throated Hummingbirds are back and I saw the first Baltimore Oriole yesterday. But this morning?
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It was a pair of Mallard ducks.
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They’re comical to watch as it’s mating season and the male follows closely behind the female everywhere she goes. She leads him on a merry chase and you know she enjoys it immensely.
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As I mentioned before, spring has brought an abundance of showers to my little corner of Maine. As proof…. I offer the new visitors who dropped by this week.
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A pair of mallard ducks who’ve made our backyard puddle their temporary home.
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We had ducks as pets years ago and I’ve always enjoyed watching them. They’re quite comical.
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But this pair is wild and flies off if they spot me. So for now, this is as close as my zoom lens will get me.
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River's world..... 