Susan Kirby

Young Ducks and Geese

No matter what you think of the adult geese and mallards, their kids are so darn cute! I love to photograph them.

May 14, 2022, was a very rainy day in Central Park. That did not deter three goslings at Turtle Pond and four ducklings at Conservatory Water from cavorting in the sprinkles. It’s spring, so the music is Antonio Vivaldi’s Spring concerto from Four Seasons, performed by John Harrison and obtained from MusOpen.org, a royalty-free music source.

The ducklings and goslings in this slideshow were seen in 2021 at Jamaica Bay and in Central Park. The Central Park mallard babies at the Pool were a special delight, since the Pool has so many snapping turtles that it is hazardous to raise a family there. There were so many goslings this year at the marina near the Lido Beach Passive Nature Area on Long Island. I’ve included some of their photos here, too.

Little Duckies at the Pond

On July 5, 2016, Mama Mallard took her six little ducklings out for a swim on the Pond in Central Park. Mama was interested in the peanuts I brought for Woody, but I was careful that the little ones didn't get any — they could choke!

I posted this ASAP because too often I return to the Pond and there are fewer little duckies than there were the day before. There are so many dangers! Snapping turtles, huge carp, raccoons, rats, black crowned night herons — all could try to make a snack of a little duckling. 

But last year or the year before, one of the Pond mallard mamas kept all seven of her little ducklings alive until they were the equivalent of teenagers. And this year a mallard mama at Turtle Pond also kept her seven ducklings alive. So I will keep my fingers crossed for all of these little ones.

So much cuteness in one little video! My thanks to the ever so talented Eric Benjamin Gordon for his composition Mild Life used in this film.

Little Duckies

Each year we get fewer and fewer little ducklings in Central Park. One reason may be that the Conservancy hires a company called the Geese Police to get rid of geese and their eggs, and in the process they also destroy mallard eggs and other eggs of waterbirds. And once the ducklings are hatched, they have a very short life expectancy, because they can be eaten by the snapping turtles in the water, and the raccoons and hawks when they are out of the water. I will sometimes see a mama mallard with six ducklings one day, then four ducklings, then three, then two, then one. But one year one mallard mother managed to keep all seven of her ducklings alive until they were full grown. That was an amazing accomplishment, I now realize.

Most of these ducklings were photographed at the Pond at 59th Street.

Quack, quack, waddle, waddle.

My Mother, the Umbrella is one of my favorite Silly Videos. The ducks did the work, I just recorded it!