Horrible Duck Disaster

A couple weeks ago Mrs Duck disappeared. Then a week later 3 of my ducklings were killed by Yogi and his sister Keisha. Three days later Mr Duck vanished without a trace. While looking for him I found the place Mrs Duck had been dragged to. Nothing left but feathers.
Thursday I had shut the remaining 9 ducklings and their 3 older siblings in the garage while I went to the farm for Thanksgiving dinner and then to Hal's camp to hunt. The next day Hal went home to feed the birds. He found all 9 ducklings dead in the garage, killed by a weasel or mink. The older ducks were alive though the female was blood spattered. The garage is in a shambles from the ducks flying about trying to escape.

Hal released the ducks and slammed the garage door down the extra inch I had accidentally left it open that allowed the mink entrance. I feel lousy about that. I came home today with a live trap baited with venison. (I had gotten a doe Thursday evening). I placed the trap in the garage by the slight opening left under the door. I heard movement in the garage but we have mice and chipmunks due to all the feed. I left to get my dogs from Uncle Butch's house and visted my neighbors. A couple hours later I went into the garage and saw the trap was sprung. There was an awful hissing as I approached and it held a big, ugly brown mink. Hal figured it stayed in the garage even though daylight had arrived because the last ducks were still alive and they kill anything in sight until nothing is left. It's last mistake.

Revenge is bittersweet but that mink isn't going to kill any more of my ducks or any other small critters wild or domestic. I feel a little better now. Not a lot, but a little. It will have to do.

All Gone

The ducks that were sent to the farm last fall because of the killer mink in my pond are all gone. As is Squash the Barred Rock rooster and his 2 hens. Something got into the chicken yard, we suspect raccoon and killed everything except the 3 guineas. No one there even noticed. Hal and I went there today to plant some corn and I went over to the bird yard and found nothing but white feathers from the Pekin, l'Orange and the carcass of the rooster. Poor guys. What an awful way to go.

I Had to BUY Zucchini

I never have to buy zucchini but I did this year. I grew 5 plants in my garden, as of today there are 3 tiny, less than 1.5 inch long, zukes. Pitiful. Most of my garden was pitiful this year. The incredible amount of rain we got at the end of spring turned everything soggy. (I can only imagine the state of farms and gardens that really got hit with the rain.) I got a decent enough supply of snow peas, some green beans, skimpy spinach, and a fairly good supply of leaf lettuce, but cucumbers, zukes, tomatoes and peppers have been a disaster. So I bought 6 small zucchini for eating today and 4 large ones for shredding into bread. I also bought 3 tomatoes so I can have a BLT sometime soon.

Maybe next year will be better.

One of my remaining 2 muscovies is lame. The gal can barely put her weight on her left foot. I have no idea how it happened, I was suspicious there was something wrong yesterday but I couldn't get close enough. Today her lameness is obvious. Don't know that there is anything I can do, just wait and hope it gets better. They're both on the deck railing again for the night.

I've caught nothing in the traps though the live trap was sprung. The wire in that trap is spaced too large to hold a mink.

I went kayaking with my neighbors yesterday, and 2 of Uncle Butch's sisters went with us. They were a blast and loved every minute of it. We had a great time doing the McKinley to 4001 Bridge run, the wildlife sanctuary. Not a lot of wildlife, though one of the sister's saw an otter. I saw blue herons, loons, king fishers and ducks. The sky was a perfect blue, no clouds at all, and the air temperature was 86f. Nice way to end summer. We hope to get at least one more river trip in this year, at the very least a fall color tour.

No Ducks on the Pond Tonight

Hal and I managed to capture the 7 mallard ducks and put them in the garage tonight. Tomorrow we'll take them to his parent's farm for an unknown amount of time. I've lost 3 ducks this week, two muscovies earlier this week and one mallard drake last night. Seems to be happening every 3 days. I took the dinghy into the pond today and found the little drake's body. His body was still whole, bobbing in the water but his neck was laying on the bank, eaten down to the bones and his head was gone. There were feathers plastered up the side of the bank.

We bought a couple of spring traps yesterday thinking we were after raccoon, but having found the body in that state, it points to a mink. Those are nasty little critters who wander far and wide and come back over and over till the food supply is gone. They are hard to catch. It's possible I may not be able to keep my ducks. Not unless I can stop this mink. If I can't get it I'll have to lock the ducks up every night.

It's generally impossible to get the mallard ducks off the pond once dusk hits. So we spent all afternoon catching them with a net, one at a time, waiting for them to come back to the garage after they ran away in a panic. Can't do that every day. Nor do I want to pen them up 24 hours a day. What's the point of having a pond if I can't let the ducks swim in it?

If I do have to get rid of the mallard ducks I hope I can keep the muscovies as they aren't as pond oriented. We took the raft off the pond today so they can't sleep on it. Apparently, a mink can easily grab a duck from the raft, dragging it into the water and drowning it. I know that's where the 3 girls were sleeping the night one of them vanished. Better if the muscovies don't have the chance to sleep there anymore. Tonight the two remaining muscovies are sleeping on the deck railing only 12 feet from the bedroom door. That's at least 40-50 feet from the pond. But I still can't risk keeping them unless I can lock them up at night, too.

I've had better weeks.