The adaptable mallard ducks and great blue herons are common in many watery habitats in southeastern Pennsylvania, as elsewhere. And both these species visit backyard goldfish ponds, including ours.
Mallards are almost everywhere there is water in farmland and suburban areas. Every spring pairs of pretty mallards are in our neighborhood, including perched on the peaks of house roofs and walking over lawns. A pair of mallards came to our lawn every spring for about five years to shovel up grain under our bird feeder, rest on our lawn and swim happily in our 100 gallon goldfish pond. It was always interesting to see these wild ducks swimming above our goldfish.
And one day early in March one year, the hen mallard began a clutch of eggs under one of our bushes on our lawn. I saw the eggs when there were only three of them and watched discreetly as the number climbed, one a day, to twelve and the hen began to set on them. Knowing it takes 28 days for duck eggs to hatch, I could mark on a calendar when the hen and her ducklings would leave their grassy nursery on the ground. I forget the exact date, but it was toward the end of April.
The morning of that day I noticed the mother mallard was lookinig around nervously. Suddenly, she emerged from under the shrub, followed by a winding stream of fuzz; 12 cute, little ducklings. They flowed quickly out of our yard and gone, presumably walking a quarter mile to a farm pond.
Many mallard hens hatch ducklings in sheltered places on the ground on lawns and in the courtyards of schools, churches and other buildings. This practice gives the species more nesting places and an increase in population.
Ducklings that hatch in courtyards are safe from ground predators, but must be chased through the buildings to the outside world so they can find ample food and grow up. Their mothers move along with their youngsters and lead them away from the buildings and to a source of water and food where the ducklings can mature.
One morning in March of another year, I went to our backyard pond to feed the goldfish, as I had every few days through winter. We have a heater in the pond that keeps the water from freezing. But when I looked into the pond, I saw no fish! I was shocked!
Late in the afternoon a few days later, I was in our front yard and saw a great blue heron flying low and majestically up our street, soar gracefully over our house on giant wings, circle our back yard once and land in a tall Norway spruce tree in a neighbor's backyard. The neighbor saw the great blue, too, and asked me if I saw it standing by our pond a few days before. I said I didn't. But I then knew what happened to our goldfish. That magnificent heron ate them.
Apparently, the heron was migrating north and either saw the spruce as an overnight roosting place and saw the fish later, or saw the pond and its fish first, caught and consumed them, then roosted a few nights in the spruce. Either way, our goldfish were replaced by that predatory heron!
I later learned that several people lost goldfish and koi in backyard ponds to great blue herons. We now have a small-holed net over our pond to prevent herons' eating our fish.
Great blues are adaptable, and successful in getting food. Mostly catching fish, tadpoles and frogs, they also ingest ducklings, mice and other critters.
It's interesting to watch these tall, gray herons snaring mice in meadows near water. The herons' beaks pressing on those little rodents quickly kills them. Then the herons walk each mouse to water, dunk it a few times to slick its fur, and swallow it whole and head-first.
Mallards and great blues are handsome, adaptable and common throughout most of North America. But I think they are most intriguing in our own backyard, especially around our goldfish pond.
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