Muscovy Updates

In older posts I introduced a Muscovy I call Brokewing. The neighbor who took him into his backyard calls him Handsome. He's been in the neighborhood (we have two ponds) since he was born here in 2018 because he cannot fly due to angelwing. Sadly, the neighbor moved away. Since the neighbor left he was being fed but the ponds have been drying up due to no rain. I've been buying mealy worms for him and a neighbor two doors away from the pond has been giving them to him. Sadly, he hasn't seen Brokewing in days. It is possible that the old neighbor came and got him and relocated him but if he did it was his first time back in the neighborhood without informing anyone. He did say he was looking for a place for him but the neighbor moved to Boca Raton which is on the opposite coast from here. Fingers crossed Brokewing is in a good place because he really likes to be around other Muscovy.

Brokewing (AKA Handsome) Summer 2021

Brokewing was a daddy again this year. He had two females stay with him in the front pond this spring and, as a result, this mama is raising 16 babies. They are a lot bigger now but I don't have a recent photo. I heard the other female was killed on the busy road by Brokewing's house. There is a definite age gap in this brood of chicks which has me believing that 12 belong to this mama and that 4 may have come from the other mama. They come to the pond by my house in the evening and spend the night there. I don't believe any of them can fly yet but I do think the oldest ones are getting close.

Muscovey are NOT the only bird in town

Duck drama is not exclusive to Muscovy. This female mallard had a partner but he was hit by a car on the busy road. He looks OK (not run over) so passerby's caught him (not an easy task) and took him to an animal rehab. The vet there said his internal injuries were to great and the best thing was euthanasia. She hung around the same pond for a while (typically they moved around a bit) and I felt sad for her all alone. While they don't mate for life, they are monogamous so she was possibly waiting for her mate to return to the same spot. Now there's a new male with her and he's young. Maybe she's a cougar and not a duck?!?!??

OK, so there is Muscovy news too. Learned that this couple, and another female, were visiting Brokewing. The two couples swam together in Brokewing's pool and both couples had copulation. But sadly, Brokewing's female was killed on the busy road (Muscovy do a lot of walking instead of flying). Everyday the male would come back to Brokewing's pool, then a couple hours later the female would join in. But, one day things changed and the female came first. Brokewing and her took this opportunity for some hanky panky but the male caught them! There was a fight and Brokewing's eye was injured. The "owner" thought he might lose it but with veterinary and TLC, his eye was saved. You don't mess with another duck's woman. 

The White Ibis is nothing new to our neighborhood. Sometimes it seems like there are a 100 of them. But the heron in the top of the photo is somewhat new. I am thinking he is an immature Little Blue Heron in molting plumage. Can't get close enough for good photo - he's very skittish - and that's the way he should be! 

Muscovy are Back!

And with it comes another round of duck drama. I thought we were to be without that this year since it didn't start in February but it's here! First, is a photo of Brokewing. You can look at last spring's post about him but basically he had angel wing and could not fly. neighbor took him in and he's been living a semi wild/semi domesticated life since. He's very handsome and healthy because he gets food, shelter, and veterinary care. There are other Muscovy who fly in to hang out with him (including mating with females) so he still has his wild wide.

Well, yesterday a female with 8 ducklings showed up in the front pond (there are two in my neighborhood with one being by the busy road and the other being across from my house). Shortly after a neighbor boy brought a 9th duckling to the pond. Apparently she had them behind their house and the 9th was too young and weak to follow mom and siblings. These ducklings are very young.

I hear she was upper excited when the boy brought her 9th baby!

The drama restarted yesterday when a strange male showed up and grabbed one of the baby ducks. Brokewing's owner chased him till he let go and the duckling ran back to it's mama. Now today, I think they are in the pond near me. Or, there's a second mama and babies. Brokewing's daddy has been adding well water to the front pond and it turns out it drains down into ours so now the ducks have moved down here. The front pond is more shaded but by the road.

The Mysterious Female and Brokewing's New Home

This is BrokeWing (now "Handsome") shortly before the neighbor captured him. His girlfriend was at his side a lot even though she could fly. She was definitely not one of his siblings. Those of us who paid a lot of attention to the Muscovy could recognize an outsider - it's weird but true.

And this is Handsome at his new digs. They actually took him to the vet where his angel wing was clipped off. We earned that he will never fly and the wing will continue to grow back and much be clipped every year to make him more comfortable.

The set up he has is a small picket fence off of their regular fence so they can open the gate and he can see the outside world yet remain safe from a busy road. The neighbors have put mirror up at the corners of the fence so he can visit with himself, lol. He swims in their pool and is eating well. I can attest to that because I took him a cup of oatmeal, which he survived on for months, and he wasn't interested.

I think he recognized me because he wasn't at all afraid of me but he would not get off his patio furniture (footstool) to visit me. He's matured a lot (takes two years for them to become sexually mature) and he's going to look so much like his mama. I think his whole head and neck will be white and his carunckles are growing in too! His new daddy has been comparing feet colors to identify the family.

So this will likely be my last entry about Broke Wing the duck since he is now a pet named Handsome.

Muscovy Update & Pond Issues Again

The original brood, Broke Wing's siblings, have all disappeared. I see Muscovy in the area that resemble Mama and believe some are living in the area but no longer in our neighborhood. The second brood, which I call Broke Wing's half siblings (because it's likely they had different daddies) are mostly gone with a handful returning at night to roost by the pond. There is one mysterious Muscovy female around but more on that in a bit.

Mama Muscovy is also gone but that's a sad story. A female was drowned in the pond during breeding with a male. Their intercourse is rather violent. Some folks thought it was a sister of Broke Wing but I trust the neighbor who said it was their Mama. That would also make more sense based on all I have observed the last 9 months and Broke Wing's siblings aren't reproductive age yet.

Back to the mysterious female. She could be a half sibling but I believe she is a different family. You'll think I am crazy when I say she looks different but she does. All the other look a lot like Mama and this one does not. She also seems to be younger than Broke Wing's brood and older than his half siblings. While all the other ducks fly off and leave him behind she is devoted to him. She stay even though she can fly.

The pond is again disappearing due to the time of year. The neighbor who invited them into his pool earlier in the year says he will take Broke Wing but catching him is a concern. I worry that he will be separated from his woman, which may sound silly, but when the other ducks would fly off and leave him for the day, he kinda goes into a trance-like state. When he's alone he barely trusts me and I am a food source to him. He seems to need his kind around him.

The neighbor had a difficult time catching one of the other Muscovy that needed help. I call her Mossy Mouth because she had something like web/net lodged in her throat that collected the Spanish moss that falls off the oak trees. They did finally catch her and it took a while but they removed the obstruction saying it was the netting that encase a bag of onions. I notice she often lands on their fence so she's in the area too.

I'll end with the cutest update. Since Broke Wing can't fly, the others will often walk with him from one pond to the other (there are 2 in our neighborhood). While Broke Wing is staying put at "my" pond, earlier in the season they would spend the day at the other pond and return to my pond at night. It was so heartwarming to see some or all of them walk with hi even though they could fly.

In this video he is trying so hard to fly!
https://www.facebook.com/vickie.carmichael/videos/10213952585062851/

Neighborhood Muscovy

Broke Wing

So, back in March a mama Muscovy showed up with 14 ducklings in the pond across the street. These ponds are retention ponds so they are not dependable in terms of water level. The worst case scenario happened and it dried up. Many of us in the neighborhood were concerned and began supplementing their diet. One neighborhood even walked them down the street and allowed them in his pool.

Eventually the rainy season came and they returned to the pond sometime in May. They had grown quite a lot but were still pretty dependent on their mom for guidance. We don't know what happened but she left. The ducklings were not sure what to do! They would walk up to people seemingly hungry so we, including me, fed them. We worried about them each time the pond dried up but luckily if will rain again. They were probably a month behind in flying at this time.

The neighbor who allowed them in his pool informed me that mama had been back in his yard for a bit and had come with a male. She also stopped by the pond daily for a few minutes but did not interact with her brood. Not sure they even recognized her any more.

Now she's back but with 8 - 12 teeny babies. The pond has water but the sun has created a bloom on it which looks like slime. The older ducks are not swimming in but the openings seem to be plenty big for the new babies to swim. Sometimes there are large openings in the slime and Thursday a couple of the ducks did fly (yes, most have been flying about a month but they stay in the neighborhood and live at the pond still) into the pond and it looked like they were giving the new chicks a hard time. Mama moved the ducklings to the pond at the front of our neighborhood. Sadly, that one goes dry even quicker but it's shaded so it doesn't have the slimy growth on top.

All this to say I am concerned. They depended on human intervention and they appear to be making out neighborhood ponds a permanent home..The ponds are not dependable, 14 residents seems a bit crowded, and now there are 12 more that may choose to stay here as well. The saddest part of this story is that is one with a broken wing. It's been that way since they were pretty young. He has the most personality and is the friendliest. I call him "Broke Wing" but the neighbor who let him in the pool calls him "Handsome".

Lessons learned by all of us is not to feed wild animals but it is hard to ignore animals in distress and allow nature to take it's course. Muscovy are considered a nuisance and are not Native so there's no help from state/county/city. They are not protected and it's not illegal to kill them. In fact, some folks raise them for food. In a restaurant they are called "Barbary Duck".

I really thought they were all going ot fly off and we would be left with Broke Wing; however, that did not happen. They have stayed in their pack of 14 and really don't seem to know what to do. From what I have read, their parents weren't there at the time they needed them to teach them to forage and fly off. Although they don't migrate, they should have dispersed a bit.

 I believe this was late March

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I believe late May

Last Week

The "new" brood