A Different Summer

Summer 2023 will be long remembered for its soaring temps and lack of any meaningful rain here in Wichita and most other places in the Midwest. I have been in yard survival mode this summer watering daily, hosing down places to cool the yard and feeding small small animals in shaded spaces. Somehow the herb garden has done OK and we have had plentiful tomatoes and a few cucumbers. We have even had a nice number fledglings, goslings and Mallard ducklings survive to adulthood.

Ducklings usually have a bit of a mortality rate as they come on the pond when just about a day or two old and are small enough to fit in the palm of a child’s hand. They are beautiful, fuzzy brown and vulnerable. A number of them do make it though and I have to say there is never a lack of the common Mallards in our area. Imagine my surprise when in early June as I watched a Momma Mallard with a “crumpled piece of yellowish white paper” floating behind her along with three regular brown ducklings. This brood came on the pond at about the size of 2 week old ducklings, so they had to have come over from another neighborhood pond. It took a moment to register that the “floating yellowish white paper” was actually a very fuzzy yellow duckling along with the rest of the brood.

Had some lazy domestic duck dropped an egg in her nest? Had Momma Mallard picked up an orphan to raise? Was it possibly a leucistic duck? Oh, I could always find them anywhere on the pond or shore as the yellow-white duckling always stuck out against the brown of the shoreline or the green murky pond. It was just fun to watch them and have them begin to come up in the yard to eat corn chops.

There were two survivors in this brood; one developing the characteristic Mallard coloring and the white duck with Mallard colored wing bands and tail feathers, I watched them learn to fly and they moved on to another pond. But they still come by once in awhile and waddle right up by the deck to enjoy some corn chops in the cool of the shade and watered yard. Now I am waiting for Spring to see if the domestic/Mallard mix duck is a drake or hen and wondering how its future ducklings might look.

Summertime on Green Heron Pond… always something different and full of wonders!