Rotten photographs this week but a pretty remarkable story.
1/1600, f/5.6, ISO 1600
Canon 5DSR, Canon 200-400 L IS USM EXT
Can you see what I saw! This lovely family of Australian Wood Ducks, aka Maned Ducks, were just outside of my window. They sometimes nest in hollows in my trees but I’m not sure which nest these guys used. My grass is super long at the moment as the ground is more suitable for ducks than for my mower – it’s so wet I’d need a flag to stick in the earth to show where it had gone down.
I took some quick photographs with my phone then raced to get my camera as the ducklings were moving so quickly it was hard to count them.
1/1600, f/5.6, ISO 1600
Canon 5DSR, Canon 200-400 L IS USM EXT
I didn’t notice the ring-in until I was counting the ducklings through the long lens – there were eleven. The first thing I noticed was that one duckling was a fraction of the size of the others, then I realised it wasn’t a Wood Duck!
I’ve seen huge broods before, including one of 29 ducklings that I shared on lirralirra a while ago. Female Wood Ducks are known to sometimes lay eggs in a communal nest, but this is the first time I’ve photographed a different species included with the group.
Pacific Black Ducklings and Chestnut Teal Ducklings are very similar and I’m not 100% sure which species this is. I was leaning towards a blackie due to the colouring but had a nagging doubt that it could be a chestnut so I wrote to the Swamp Shepherd, (who has featured in previous posts) as he is a duck whisperer. He felt that the bill appears more Chestnut Teal-ish but isn’t 100 certain either. I checked my books, and googled, where the best images I found were from lirralirra, which was pretty hilarious, but still not conclusive.
I can only wonder how this little duckling found itself with a foster family. The wonders of nature.
Happy birding, Kim
- I’m not sure how well known ‘ring in or ring-in’ is outside of Australia and New Zealand so here’s a definition from dictionary.com: noun ring-in Australian informal a horse that serves as a substitute. Australian and NZ informal a person or thing that is not normally a member of a particular group; outsider.
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Woodies are ADORABLE!! Especially ducklings.
There were a couple of dozen here again today. It was funny to hear so many calling at once.
Aw I’m glad this little one found a family. Ducklings are so hard to ID! Hopefully you see them again when the little one is more identifiable.
I hope so too, Alyssa! I’ll let you know if there’s an update. I definitely wasn’t expecting to find an UWD when I started counting them.
This might be a case of Mum not returning to the nest and this little courageous bird ventured out and found a new family which I hope will make this special little bird welcome. It is interesting that it already knows it must take its place at the back but hopefully have the protection of the group. As all us humans know, being different is not easy and that is definitely the same in the animal world. This reminds me of the children’s stories The Ugly Duckling, Mumble from Happy Feet and, even Ferdinand the Bull – yes all animals dealing with being different but each finally finding their way and being happy with who they are!
Kim hopefully you might get to see how this story ends as it unfolds in your backyard and let’s hope this little duck will survive and live a wonderfully, happy, healthy, safe life.
It’s fascinating to ponder on what may have happened. I’ll have to look up the stories you’ve mentioned, I’m familiar with the names but only really know the story of the ugly duckling. Pretty sure I’ve watched penguins in Happy Feet but it must have been a long time ago. I’ll keep you posted if I see this family again. The ring-in looked very at home with them and will hopefully be able to keep up with its bigger step-siblings.
Oh rats. I wrote a reply to your message but it seems to have disappeared. I know I said that’s it fascinating to ponder on how the ring-in came to be with its foster family. I also commented on the stories you mentioned… hopefully that part of my reply will turn up at some point. I will let you know if I see this family again, hopefully the tiny ring-in will manage to keep up with them all.
Aha, it did turn up!
Thanks for the much needed smiles this morning.
I do hope that the ring-ins foster family (parent and siblings) treat it well.
And a question (which you may not have an answer for). I have seen those huge broods and wonder whether the parenting is shared or whether one duck takes it all on, leaving the others to do ducky things without the responsibilities?
It looked 100% happy with them, though its little legs must have been working nineteen to the dozen. The biggest brood I saw had two adults with it, one male and one female – so the other parents had presumably left those two with all the responsibilities. This smaller family had four adults with it, three males and one female. It’s an interesting question EC. I usually see two adults with a brood but have seen more and have seen just one, which looks like very hard work.