Mallard mothers

A week after our first sighting of Mallard ducklings at Cavendish Grove, we went back to see them. This time, we found two Mallard mothers with ducklings. One had five ducklings in the lower pond

and the other, ten ducklings in the upper pond. 

I believe these latter ducks to be the ones my husband and I had seen the week before.

We had walked between the ponds in search of the ducklings, hoping the five we spotted in the lower pond weren’t all that was left of the ten we’d seen previously. However, the ten and their mother had made the short trek to the upper pond as we had and were enjoying their time there.

The ducklings were playful, 

rambunctious even, as they dived into the water one after the other, sending the water high into the air. Their mother dabbled quietly, dipping and surfacing. She held her head high as she swam around the ducklings. It looked like the young were in competition for the highest splash, the way all youngsters compete.

In the previous post about the ducklings, I mentioned the molting male Mallard I had seen. A few days later, I saw a pair of molting mallards on the stream in Summerside. 

The male, usually such a pretty bird, was quite bedraggled. I guess anyone can have a bad hair, I mean feather, day.