Jemima Mallard

Surprise Guests

Sometimes you wake up to a nice surprise. On the morning of 17th May 2020, we opened the curtains and looked out into the garden, and there, nestling together under the apple tree near one of the ponds, was Jemima and 10 ducklings!

She eventually got up and lead her little flock to our main pond, and round to its shallow un netted end. She jumped up onto the rocks by the water ( some 9 inches)  and expectantly waited for her brood to join her, as we watched- thinking they can’t possibly jump up there- one by one they appeared on top of the rocks and jumped down to join her swimming around the pond under the ‘heron protection net’   We thought it was amazing that they could do this with such ease and apparent grace so soon after being born (probably less than 12 hours).

The eggs must have hatched early in the morning and the mother had let them dry off and led them out the nest (at the time we did not know where the nest was, and it was only the following year we really found out). They were possibly resting before life’s adventures were to begin.

Meanwhile as they were happily swimming away, we were scratching our heads and discussing what to do with them. Out came the phones and good old Google.

The mother duck, having explored one pond, then came out , quickly followed by her happy band, and started to lead them round the garden with the obvious intention of leading them down to the nearby River Trent, just about ½ mile away, as the ‘duck’ flies. In reality it’s a bit longer and also part along a major busy ‘B’ road.

We are lucky enough to have quite a large garden with 3 ponds of various sizes. The mother duck continued all morning to lead her brood from pond to pond to swim, play, feed and also occasionally wandering round trying to find a way out of the garden.

We tried contacting the RSPB, but lockdown was still in its infancy and we got no response.   From the material we found on the internet it seemed we had 3 choices, the

1. Leave them in the garden and let the mother raise the ducklings in the garden
2. Open the gates and let her find her way to the river by herself or shepherd them there.
3. Catch them and take them somewhere to release.

The first was not really an option, she obviously wanted to get out, and even though they seemed quite happy swimming in one pond or another and meandering round the garden, resting under shrubs or on the grass she did keep periodically trying to lead them out. We also thought it was a bit selfish to try and keep them there.

The second option, opening the gates, seemed a bit irresponsible and just passing the issue onto someone else. Even shepherding them, though an option was not easy because of the path they could take and the main roads , even more difficult and stressful for all if we had to lead them where she did not want to go.

We decided on the third option, capturing them and releasing them at a local nature reserve.

Nervously reading the guidance we could find on capturing ducks with ducklings

Capturing the ducks

The essential thing was to safely catch the mother and have separate carry boxes for her and the ducklings.

We read that it was a good idea to have a blanket to throw round the mother and after finding an old camping blanket we got two cat/rabbit carrying cases from friends and relatives. (Because of COVID they had to leave them outside their houses so we could pick them up).

At the time I also thought the first step would be to wait for her to take her party swimming in the pond under the heron net. We could then collapse the net on top of them and quickly gather them in. My wife was not really convinced by the idea, but we persisted with it. Please note COUNT THE DUCKLINGS before you start to capture them!

It was not really the bright idea I expected, though they grouped together as we approached the pond and were together under the net when I collapsed it, it was not so easy to actually get them out of the pond from underneath it.

A bit of panic ensued, we learnt then, that if a duckling can get its bill through something they will try to follow with their bodies. One poor duckling got his head through the net, fatally I am sorry to say. The others, and Jemima leaked out from under the net and out of the pond. I think we only captured a couple of them successfully in this way.

Luckily, I was able to throw the blanket easily around Jemima just after she got out of the pond and placed her safely in her own basket with a blanket to give her something firmer to stand on and act as a bit of padding.

I should say that you must be very careful picking up and handling ducks because of their wings, legs and the fact they have a complex respiratory system, with air sacs all around their body. Holding them too tight can cause breathing difficulties and even suffocation. Try to hold your hand gently around them, making sure there is always room for them to move around a little bit inside your hands. Hold them around the wings. DON'T try to catch them by their legs, you will only injure them. If you can, cover their heads/ eyes with a cloth or towel.

Frantically, we tried to try to locate the remaining missing ducklings which had fled to all corners of the garden and undergrowth. Most we located in the ivy at the bottom of the wall near the pond. I have to say they have evolved very good camouflage and an inbuilt expertise in trying to hid! A few more were located hiding around the tiny pond we have and around the back of a compost bin near there. We even found one still in the pond, head pushed into a rockery we have there. As we found them, we put them in their own pet basket, with a towel inside to give them something to stand on, act as padding, and more importantly help keep them in as we added more.

We (or I was) were really panicking now, we were one missing and Jemima and her ducklings in separate pet baskets were starting to make some noise and we knew we should move them as quickly as possible to their release point. We were searching high and low for the last duckling, re-counting those in the basket to make sure we had not miss-counted.

After several minutes we had almost given up on finding it and started to search the entire garden again for a final time. As I walked across the lawn towards some sheds I heard some squeaking behind me, and there the last one appeared from where it had hidden somewhere round the pond (it had obviously bested us with its expert camouflage and enemy avoidance skills) running across the lawn, flapping its little wings, and buried its self in amongst some comfrey shrubs in a flower bed. We extracted it from there carefully and put him with its brothers and sisters in the basket and transferred both carriers to the boot of our car.

We made a careful drive (to try and make their journey as comfortable as possible and not rock them in their baskets too much) to a local nature reserve.

The fun had not finished. As we opened the boot so we could carry them to the water's edge we found that two of the ducklings were running around the boot having escaped through the small wire mesh across the door of their basket (or the small diagonal air vents on the sides). If they can get their bill through it, they will try to get their bodies through!