Duck Wars

May 13, 2026

 

Not every year, and not every other year, but some years we get ducks visiting our front yard.   I’ve learned over time that they watch other birds and know where food and water is located.   I have plenty of feeders in the front yard as well as bowls of water, which I clean and refill daily as part of my chores routine.  I’ve been observing birds now for 10 years and I figured that they must be a successful species to have survived 65 million years, unlike us “newbies” to the world.

So, this year a mated pair of Mallards showed up one day.   The male can be quite vocal, so I now listen for his morning chatter.   They’ve been here over a month now and I expect them to be gone any day, since we are now in triple digits, but so far they appear every morning and late afternoon.   Mornings are reserved for eating birdseed and duck food pellets.   Afternoons are reserved for drinking water and dunking themselves into one of the large rubber water bowls that I had up at the horse ranch.   I love to observe the female.   She dunks her head into the water with pure abandon while the male stands guard.  He needs to stand guard because we have quite a few feral cats in the neighborhood who are always on the prowl for an extra meal.

This morning I heard frantic quacking, so I went out to see if maybe a coyote was around.   Nope.  There were three ducks instead of two!   An intruder?   YES!  And, it was another female.   The male got VERY UPSET, chased her into another neighbor’s yard and was quite rude to her.   His quacks could be heard all up and down the street.   He chased her down the street, he chased her into the neighbor’s yard, and he even flew after her in an attempt to rid her for good.   Nothing worked. 

She is now out front eating birdseed by herself.   The pair flew off in disgust.

Our local civic center park has large ponds and every fall the ducks and geese fly down here and some stay over the winter.  And, of course, the Salton Sea attracts many bird species.   I often hear the geese in the mornings since the park is only about ¼ mile away from our home.   I love to hear the geese and I look forward to them returning every year.

But, I always look out front first thing in the morning for the pair of ducks.   They fly in and land on the beautifully manicured lawn across the street, rest there, check for cats, and then waddle across to our yard for breakfast.  Since I’m already feeding various species of birds, I just add some birdseed and pellets for them and I check their water bowls.

Simple pleasures.

480 words

May , 2026

/cd