Mallards

The mallards have returned. The mallards come every years for the summer. Daddy used to watch for them every spring. one of the sure signs that winter was finally over.

See, Daddy raised mallards from eggs in his incubator one year while i was a teen, and then set the free. he was very careful to not make "pets" out of them. we never kept them in a cage, they just wandered the farm. then one day they stopped coming home for corn. then the next spring the came circled the farm and lit on the creek. (which we can see from the house)

now, the average lifespan of a mallard is 8-10 years. and its been longer than that since we raised that first pair of mallards. So i doubt that these are our mallards, BUT i don't doubt that these are the grandchildren of our ducks. because before we raised our ducks we never saw mallards here.

THE mallards or their descendants, its still a welcome site every spring.

with the rain we have had, they have all sorts of places to swim. they swam down the ditch in the pasture to the left of my house and this picture is next to the salt lick rock in the barn yard. it rains nearly every day right now. April has truly been a month of April showers. the years are mucky if you walk in them and you don't have an actual puddle, it is more like a over full sponge. no wonder the ducks are here!