Help needed - baby ducks!
 

Help. Anyone from RSPB etc out there who can offer advice? This morning 8 am a commotion with kids outside the house revealed that there were 8 baby ducklings in our front garden. I was informed that the ducklings had been walking in the road and that the kids had chased them into our garden - as kids will do. The parent ducks were flying around at times, clearly somewhat distressed. I am presuming the hatch was inland and that the parents were trying to escort the offspring early morning to some more appropriate place.

They are Sheld ducks so I guess the appropriate place is the sea - approx 1/2 mile away in a direct line across the golf links. However, there is a busy motorway access road in between!

I ushered the offspring into our enclosed back garden and they settled down. At one time (9.15 am) the parent ducks landed in the garden and after they had settled I eased open the door to the garden (unseen by the ducks) in the hope that the parents would wander off with the offspring.

That started to happen in that the parents left the garden - but were then chased off by a dog! Damn! I have only seen them very briefly (once) flying overhead about 6 hours later.

OK, what to DO?

I can leave the ducklings overnight in the totally enclosed back garden and hope that the parents return later/ early tomorrow. Then I can repeat the door opening technique but this time making sure the area is clear of dogs. I am still worried about how the parents will get the offspring across the motorway access road. I presume the parent ducks know where they are heading.

Alternative is to catch the ducklings in a large box, transport them across the motorway access road and let them free on the golf links or even closer to the sea. I can do that now or very early morning. I am reluctant to do that because the chances of them linking up with the parents is remote.

Meanwhile do I try to feed the things - and with what? they can take the occasional 'dip' in my garden pond so water is not a problem.

Advice appreciated. I did try to phone RSPB and local RSPCA - voicemail replies only - and an unhelpful RSPCA national line.

Thanks

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

See if there's a local animal sanctuary - contact them for advice? Not sure what a duck eats - they filter water I think. I'd expect them to make a noise, especially when hungry, so that should attract the parents - and hungry animals.

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

Don't ducks eat bread? That's what I've been feeding the little guys down at the 'Triangular' pond in Baglan and they seem happy enough....

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

I tried the local sanctuary - another voicemail saying closed until Monday.
Noise - no need to tell me. Continual "cheeping" from all 8 of 'em. Been doing it all day. Sounds very loud to me but parent ducks fly past quick and may not hear. The chicks hide under the rhubarb plants in the garden and so are not always very visible.

These are Sheld ducks ie marine ducks. The books say food = worms, sand hoppers and (when bigger) shellfish + seaweed.

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

If the parents haven't returned by tomorrow then call the RSPCA.

If they do just leave it to them by leaving access open.And carefully explain to all your neighbours what you are trying to do in the meantime,then maybe you will get some assistance with keeping kids,dogs and CATS etc under control.

Incog. :)

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

Incog,
yes, that is my "feeling" for the best solution. I will of course worry all night about the local cats finding the chicks in the garden, especially if they keep up this cheeping. I will not sleep a wink tonight worrying about them.

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

The young of any species (including us) needs a diet rich in vitamins, minerals and especially protein, so they can grow up to be big and strong. Bread just isn't going to do it - not on its own anyway :D

My dad breeds greenfinches. The young chicks need protein so he feeds them mealworms - has to buy them from a supplier. Trouble is, the worms need housing and feeding too, and eventually they turn into this scary looking bug. My dad's basically providing what the finches would get in the wild. It's all very complicated and difficult.

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

I wouldn't panic about food yet-but set a deadline to call the RSPCA and stick to it after giving the parents time to sort it out.

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

Could provide clean fresh water though.

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

Why stop there? How about a selection of cupcakes?? And a supply of nice clean towels?? :D :D

Seriously though, I'm shocked at the RSPB and the animal sactuary not being open on the weekends :erm:

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

The pond water will do just fine. :)

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

I should imagine that they lack serious cash and are short on volunteers to man phones.

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

Nope. RSPCA and RSPB are just organisations for middle England to join so they can feel good about themselves. They generally don't give a stuff about wildlife and in the case of RSPCA, they're only interested in domesticated animals. You try asking them to rescue something - it'll be dead by the time you convince them.

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

'aint they cute?

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

Awwwwww bless! They look like giant fluffy mint humbugs on legs!

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

I like the way the leader has a cross on his back ;)

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

Their feet and stance got me curious - found this:

Which explains it. Also explains why they're so big :)

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

Call your local VET, they should have a 24hour line and my just get the RSPCA out anyway.

Think it's chinese for tea...Mmmm Crispy!!!

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

the first person who mentions duck ala orange is going to get red repped into annihalation ;)

you just got close tricky :D :D :D :D

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

Er you just did - does that mean we all red rep you :confused: :D

Try phoning the local police, on their local switchboard number (not 999!). They will often have contact numbers not available to the general public where you might be abel to get advice. At the simplest level, if the chicks are quite young, even if they stay in your garden safely overnight, without food they are going to get weak quite quickly. That alone should be reasonable grounds for you to be concerned about welfare and what to do, if anyone gets grumpy about wasting thier time.

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

ahhhhhhhhhhhh whoopsssssssss , been nice knowing you all :Sprint: :D :D :D

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

Been there - done it. They were nice and friendly/ appreciated the problem but could only give me the RSPCA number I had already tried without success.

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

I'd be worried about predation by foxes etc, got a rabbit hutch handy ?

Surely a local Animal Rescue centre would help

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

The "fluffy humbugs" are still running around the garden squeaking like mad. The adult birds have flown over once or twice in the last couple of hours but have not come down. I think (or at least I hope) that means the adults are aware of the chicks location so I hold out hope that early tomorrow morning (dawn-ish) when all is quiet the parents will return and I can let them all loose with me doing some rear-guard guidance.

That is plan A - unfortunately I do not really have a plan B other than to contact RSPB tomorrow (and the local Urban Farm, who may be able to advise).

I do have a nice cosy shed where the chicks could stay in a box but really I want the chicks to be "available" to the parents at all times and especially early tomorrow. Although I will try to be up around dawn (honest - I'm daft, and a very light sleeper) there is no guarantee. We do not have a problem with foxes and no special problem with cats - possibly because we have a dozen garden lights on all night as a security measure and a couple of big sensor-activated flood lights along the passage way beween us an next door that any foxes/ cats would use.

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

heres hoping the ducks are ok , me likes ducks :D :D :D

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

I've kept in touch with this thread because

I'm just as much a 'softy' for fluffy baby ducks, as anyone.

I think snodvan is being incredibly caring & I share his concern for them

I'm worried about the food aspect.

- I just wondered if anyone knew whether ducklings were fed by their parents, or whether they foraged, themselves? If the latter, then they might get some grub from the pond - insects, small snails, worms?

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

what about cygnets ?

http://metawraith.spymac.net/swan-cygnets02.jpg

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

Awwww. I'd love them to be in my garden.
Make them a little shelter out a box and make sure its clearly labelled out so that it doesnt get thrown in the bin.
Give them some water, a few bits of bread, not too much or it will make them ill, and then keep an eye on them. If you can make sure its safe from foxes as they would just swallow them whole.

Then look out for the parents and see if they go off with them.
With it being a built up area with a motorway, I'd say the best thing might be to catch them and take them to the sea, however I dont know enough about ducks to know if they need their parents or not.

Good luck.

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

I'm afraid they still need the parents.Anyway they may not be heading to the sea just the nearest large fast flowing water source.

Why not contact the Hedgehog sanctuary folk? I forget the name but according to the TV series they make a point of rescuing ALL wildlife.

Incog.

here you are St Tiggywinkles

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

We are all big softies where ducks are concerned.

I think ducklings fend for themselves from a very early age. All day they seem to have been pecking / grovelling into the grass of the lawn (which has been uncut for a week or so) and just at the moment they are doing that with a vengence. I suspect that is because as night comes and the grass gets more moist all sorts of small insects/ larvae come out - at least it is always this time of night when the midges etc bite my ankles when I am camping.

There will be loads of insecty things in the flower borders because 3 months ago I spread 2 tons of stable manure on those and a million "things" seem to live in the straw layer that is now on top. Keeps the blackbirds and other birds occupied all day so I guess it will do for ducklings as well.

There will not be much food in the pond because it is only small (4 ft x 3ft x 2 ft deep)and recently established. The onlyu thing in was a few taddies and they are now mini frogs somewhere. The duckies had better NOT eat my wife's mini frogs - she has been nurturing them through from the tadpole stage.

I tried making up a food supply (prawns/ crab stick and some sweet corn mixed in the blender with a little milk and bread). They ignored it and continued to peck at the lawn. OK, I tried. I must go and move it in case the fishy smell attracts any cats.

Watch out for tomorrow's exciting installments

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

aha - it's looking like a mutation, where shelducks realise handing their chicks over to suitable humans, with a nice garden, saves them a lot of work :D

- seriously, though, it sounds like they have both food & water, sorted - nice one :tu:

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

Incog

Thanks for that link. I now have a couple of additional local phone numbers to call tomorrow if things do not go according to "plan A".

The duckies are now all quiet in two little huddled groups - one in the rhubarb and the others (strangely) in the middle of the lawn. I wonder if they would like a hot water bottle to snuggle up to? I'm almost daft enough to do it!

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

I think what they can eat depends on what type of bill they have according to the quick search I've done on Ask.com.

http://www.nysite.com/nature/fauna/mallard.htm

http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Farm/ducks.html

http://www.liveducks.com/faqs.html

Incog.

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

Update!

I was up and about at 4am. All the fluffy humbugs had survived the night OK. :D

Parent ducks arrived in the larger side garden at around 4.30. For 30 mins I let them settle/ call to the duckies in the enclosed rear garden, then I opened the joining garden door. Last night I had left that door unlocked and just held in place by a couple of bricks and with a rope attached to the handle and through the house patio door - so I could gently pull the garden door open without going outside and causing a disturbance.

There was a family reunion in the side garden then they all started to move off through other gardens initially then out onto the pavement. Within 50 yards there were 2 parents leading 6 chicks - but there were 8 chicks leaving my garden. I still have not found the mising 2.

Parents and 6 chicks were "escorted" down 2 roads, across a normally busy main road and then into a small housing estate that is next to some allotments/ a playing field and then a nature reserve. By 'ek, they can't half run those little 'uns. I finally 'lost' them when they went under a back door into a garden that backs onto the playing field. Being only 5.15 am at this time I did not think the occupiers would appreciate being woken to ask "can I check my duckies are OK". One parent flew off at this time - I think I was getting a bit too close.

OK, so that lot are probably OK and will all make it to the nature reserve - :D what about the 2 who have gone AWOL? No idea. I have search my garden and they are definitely not there and yet I know 8 left the back garden and there were only 6 with the parents some 50 yards later. More searches after I have had some rather early breakfast.

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

Sometimes the parent duck hides the young ones under her - did you spot a four/six legged duck? :D Fingers crossed that a moggie hasn't got them as an early breakfast. Glad that the rest have made it though :tu:

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

The family were 'legging' it so fast there is no way that mum could carry a couple of chicks. It was only max 2-3 mins between me opening the side gate and then closing the patio door, grabbing a coat and being out in the side garden/ side road. If a moggie had been around and done any damage then the parent ducks would surely have reacted. In practice they looked cool & calm and had moved into the next garden - but only had 6 chicks with them. I'm off for a bit of a hunt before I start work. It is going to be a long day!

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

Going like the quackers huh :D :rolleyes:

How hard can it be to find two noisy fluffy humbugs? :erm:

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

Quick update - all 8 chicks are in the garden of the house where I last saw them disappear under the gate. Maybe I just can't count at 5am. No sign of the parents but no doubt they are 'lurking'. That garden is almost fully enclosed so the chicks cannot really go anywhere. I am about to put a note through the house door offerening to collect the chicks and move them further on their route to the nature reserve - only another 1/4 mile so I am sure the parent ducks will find the chicks.

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

I guess a load of fast moving fluffy humbugs are a bit tricky to count :)
Hopefully not all Sheld duck parents are this lackadaisical when it comes to caring for their offspring.

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

But someone told me that ducks can't count above three :Yikes:

(Not sure I believe this mind. Struggles to imagine how they found out)

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

Postscript

The ducklings were rescued from a set of gardens and moved 300-400 yards further on to a playing field close to the edge of a nature reserve. Parents were "flying around" the gardens and general area so the hope is/ was that they will find the chicks. That would be fairly easy if the chicks had stayed on the edge of the palying field because they are very visible. However, no, the silly **s wandered off as a group into the nature reserve. That is not much further but is all long grass and generally is not in the direction of the streams/ marshy areas. I think it will be damned difficult for the parents to find the chicks in all that vegetation. Anyway, I cannot really follow them in there (restricted area) so I guess that is "it" so far as my involvement is concerned.

It has been a l-o-n-g copuple of days. I am knackered with late last night and up again at 4am this morning. Now I can have a 'lovely' day staring at spreadsheets while I try to sort out my business accounts for the taxman.

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

I think you need to set up your wallpaper first :)

http://images.google.co.uk/images?sv...ck&btnG=Search

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

snodvan for you and only you. :D

Incog. :)

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

Well done on your duck mission.
You have saved their lives.

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

he deserves it too - nice one Incog :tu:

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

Mind you, it's a good job that the Bill didn't catch snodvan skulking around at 4:30 this morning else he'd be up before the Beak! :D

Well done snodvan. Wear your medal with pride.

Re: Help needed - baby ducks!
 

I'm sure he wouldn't have ducked the issue.