Two new ducks arrived at the Brighton millpond this past week. One is so tame he can almost be picked up while eating. They are about two months old, and I’m not sure they’re healthy. They have scruffy tails. Could it be an intestinal problem? Perhaps the odd tails are just from the stress of being in a new environment. The resident ducks are pecking at them and chasing them away (below), not unusual when new ducks arrive. They seem to handle the abuse well, but we’ll see how the next month goes.
So sad. People are so ignorant about dumping animals back into the wild.
That’s why I keep bringing the subject up. It’s not that people aren’t trying to be good stewards of animals. They just don’t understand the dynamics in the wild.
[...] Frick and Frack were dumped at the pond by their previous owner during the second week in September. One of the identical twins has since died, but I’m not sure if it was Frick or Frack. I have to assume it was Frack that died for the purposes of this blog. Ducks don’t have pockets so they don’t fly in and out of the pond with identifying papers. [...]
[...] since Frick was discarded by her previous owner at the Brighton millpond last September, she’s been an easy-to-spot addition to the resident wildfowl population and a frequent [...]
[...] and walked right up to me to be fed. She looked scrawny and disheveled, but she’s often looked that way since arriving at the pond last September. As I fed her, I noticed she was limply holding her wings [...]
[...] than SweetPea, no millpond duck has received more blog space than Frick since she was dumped at the pond last September with her sibling, Frack, who died shortly after his arrival. Dumped ducks [...]