Raising Florida

I have found that little Booperu tends to nap best when he has had some mid-morning exercise. One of the things I like to do with him after breakfast is take him to feed the ducks. We have a fancy retention pond with fountains nearby  so we can just walk over with a bag of bread. I keep stale bread and crackers on reserve for just this purpose. True, bread is not their natural food, but I don’t believe that feeding ducks bread very occasionally makes them too lazy to forage for their own food. Its like giving them a ducky ice cream treat.

Most of the ducks that we have in our pond are Muscovy ducks. It is not a very attractive duck, and considered by many to be a pest, but the Muscovy tends to be quiet and gentle so they do not frighten Boopster. They are friendly, too. They wag their tails when they approach you and it really seems like a greeting.

This particular duck breed is native to South America, but they became very popular as domestic fowl in Europe and elsewhere hundreds of year ago. Many either escaped or were released and now there are many feral populations in urban centers all over the world. In the US the largest numbers are in Texas and, yep, Florida!

I think one of the best things about having Muscovy ducks in Florida is the fact that they are voracious insect eaters and genuinely help control mosquitoes. This is apparently a little known fact, since many developed housing areas have banned these ducks from living in their manufactured lakes and ponds.

Every time we visit the pond, the duck population is different (we only go a few times per month). Currently, there are two mommy ducks each with a little brood, and there are four resident “teenager ducks” which are too old to live with their mother but are too young to be called adults. Its the number of babies that changes the most. It seems like the little ones get picked off pretty quickly by predators. One time, a hawk flew over and sat in the tree directly above us to watch as we fed the ducklings. I kept reminding myself that hawks have babies to feed too.

Booperu likes to feed the ducklings, but he really enjoys watching the turtles eat. Yes, the turtles come over to get bread snacks too! I’d never seen anything like it until we started going to this pond. I know other people feed the turtles from the deck. The turtles are so numerous and aggressive that you can’t feed the ducks over the water. You have to feed them on the banks. The turtles come over too, but they stay in the water with their noses poking out. They really deserve their own post.