Momma Duck #2 was eaten last night. 😦  The pattern looks the same.

About a month ago Momma #1 was taken. I had set a game camera out but it turned up nothing. I figured the critter would have come back relatively soon and when nothing did I turned off the camera. The camera has a flash (not infrared) and was poised near my neighbor’s house and their daughter’s window — I didn’t want “other critters” to keep tripping the camera at night, flash going off, and disturbing my neighbor’s daughter. Thus I turned it off after nothing came back.

Of course, now I’m kicking myself for having turned it off. But who knew?

Camera goes back out and will remain as long as I can. If the critter came back, I’ll bet it’ll come back a third time.

The bummer part? Momma #2 had about 20 eggs and had been sitting for quite a while. We figured another week, maybe two at most, and we’d have ducklings. So, we brought in a sampling of the eggs and candled them. Sure enough, some of the eggs have chicks growing. Not 100% sure how far along they are, but certainly there’s blood vessels and “masses” within.

We’re trying to figure out what to do about them.

On the one hand, the neighborhood duck situation is getting out of hand. Most neighbors like it, but some really hate it and have been complaining. There’s effort to get ducks captured and relocated. To hatch more babies would just contribute to the “neighborhood vermin” problem. So in a way, whatever is eating the ducks is actually helping to control the population, which is good. Furthermore, it can be argued that adding more ducks to the neighborhood could risk bringing more unwanted critters. Once I figure out what is eating the ducks well… what if it is a bobcat? Do we really want to continue to encourage that by growing the food source?

But on the other hand, I just can’t stand to see little babies die, at least not without a fighting chance. Sure they’re just ducks, but something still pulls at me to try to help them live. As well, if we do something like say incubate them, the whole thing becomes quite a learning experience for the kids. Even for Wife and me because well… if someday we’re going to move to the country and raise ducks or chickens or whatever, such would be a good experience. Of course, another option is to find someone to take them, but being Saturday there’s not much open right now.

*sigh*

What to do… what to do….