It's Just Ducky

What it is about the little duckies in my neighborhood? For one thing, there were suspiciously few litters (is that what they're called, I know it's not gaggle cuz that's for geese). There are tons of ducks but for some reason this spring not many babies. One explanation is that "someone" did some kind of re-con and gathered up the eggs so there wouldn't be so many (or maybe it was that homeless guy that caught that huge carp in the catch and release lake and took it "home" to eat, ew!).

But the ones that were saved and hatched seem to have disappeared too. When I would go on my daily walks I would see them. One family in particular had 7 duckies (they must have been Mormon). The next day there were only six, then five, then four, etc. until they were all gone. I wondered if the blue herons or the egrets had them for lunch. That made me think how a duck mom or dad felt seeing one of their offspring being swooped up, never to be seen again. I would imaging they would be like: Come on kids, keep up with Mom and Dad, paddle your little web feet faster! Then one of the big birds would swoop down and grab a bite and the parents would be like: Wow, I could have sworn there were seven of you. Huh, oh well, let's go kids.

That conversation would go on for a couple days until all the duckies were gone and the parents would be like: Gee, I wonder if we should start a family? I imagine ducks are the brightest.

I have also heard ducks mate for life, which is cool. But, in my observations, most female ducks have two males that hang around them. I guess they practice some form of polygamy. Hmmm, there seems to be a pattern here...