Duck update: my hen isn’t Honey

Well, my pair of mallards returned to the pond yesterday afternoon.  I walked home, but without duck food as I thought they’d gone for good. But I whistled as I walked by the pond, just to be sure.  And there were immediately two “plops” in the water as the pair, cavorting on the bank, jumped in and swam to me.

I realized that I had to go back to my lab and get some duck food, which took me about five minutes. To re-enter the building, I walk up a flight of stairs and then turn left into a covered breezeway that leads to the door.

When I returned five minutes later, the pair of ducks were waiting at the bottom of the stairs for me! They had exited the pond and gone to the last place they’d seen me. That was adorable.

I fed them a big ration of corn on land (always more efficient as they can eat faster and don’t miss the kernels that sink to the pond bottom), and then they took them to the water for their mealworms. But I photographed them on land as I wanted to see if the hen’s feet had the same pattern as Honey’s.

First, here’s the handsome pair (I still haven’t named them, but it’s time):

 

I photographed the feet, but didn’t notice until I wrote this post that the new hen is missing a toe on her left foot! She’s maimed!

She seems to swim okay, but I hope she’s not somehow slowed down:

At any rate, here is Honey (and her feet) from last year. You see that she had all her toes, and her feet were brighter and much more mottled than the present hen’s. Unless Honey lost a toe over the winter, and her feet and bill changed color, what I have is a new duck:

Honey the duck