Pet Ducks of Cape Cod

R.I.P Lucy, the duck guarding dog

Sadly, we bid farewell to Lucy

We are sad to report that Lucy, 11, the duck guarding dog succumbed to liver cancer and had to be put to sleep on Saturday.  She will be dearly missed.

A duck fight

TROUBLE in Paradise on Cape Cod

In Sept of 2007 I went to the Boston Poultry Show.

I loved the call ducks and a breeder had four in a cage for sale. She was from MAINE and her calls were in the show including two of the ones for sale. There were two butterscotch (blondes) colored females, A gray male (Looking like a Mallard) and a butterscotch colored male. She said she had to sell them in pairs as they were paired off. I took them home and after awhile let them in with the other ducks. They were fine with the other ducks and as a foursome really were content and happy. They look like four rubber Duckies in their shape.

HOWEVER as you all might remember this past Dec 2nd a hawk grabbed a female (named Butterfly) and I chased it down. I rushed her to the vet and she although injured seem to bounce back and be fine. She was always the frail one of the group but feisty. THEN about a month ago she got sick and died of some sort of infection or scar tissue in her neck. The hawk had given her some puncture wound She was the mate of the Butterscotch male whose name was Butterscotch. After we got back from the vet without her Butterscotch was without a wife and not happy.

SO he(the one that lost his girlfriend) stole away (and she went willingly for some reason) the Blonde female named LYNETTE. She was not his but Belonged to the Gray duck whose name is LLBEAN. So trouble in paradise began at that point with the two males fighting and fighting and fighting. I had to separate them since the one named LLBEAN is smaller and was getting beat upon. SO I decided I would call every call duck breeder on my list including the one in MAINE. Even when the gray was not even bothering the wayward couple (LYNETTE and Butterscotch) the male would chase him out of the flock. She would sit at the water dish like a queen and could care less about this. SHE had a female Call duck who was the same color variety called GRAY.

I thought great that this would work out having a pair of the same and they would all get along again. So to get that girl GRAY from MAINE was interesting in itself. The women who we purchased the original Call ducks from brought the duck down to meet me at the Exit 6 truck stop. She was pretty plain and unattractive I have to admit but very friendly and used to being picked up. I put her in a cage next to a cage with the Gray womanless male duck and she fell in love. HOWEVER the male duck (LLBEAN) was not that interested in her and after a week seems to still want his own mate.

(LYNETTE)In the cage together these two get along but he pecks her some and makes her wait until he eats and drinks first. YESTERDAY the weather was nice so I put them out in the duck run. THE TWO males got into a terrible fight and they still both want the ordinal duck vamp LYNETTE.HOW DO I GET THEM PAIRED OFF AGAIN to be happy once more as a foursome?

The larger male beats the heck out of the gray male. THE GRAY male (who is the color of a wild mallard) wants his original mate back and no one wants that new little girl Plain Jane from MAINE.SO NOW This is throwing off the whole pecking order in the flock causing in fighting. At one point my female Cayuga duck went over and tried to stop this fighting

Meet a fresh Mallard

This video shows a very fresh Mallard

Now that it is winter, he has settled down, and he was put in "time out" for a while.
He is no longer picking on her (or maybe wants to have a bigger date)

The Coyote Wars

A Cape Cod war of the will

I am outside this morning dressed in a long black coat over my nightgown with big black boots, a scarf and work gloves that belong to my husband.

The Coyote family is made up of a very large male with silvery gray hair, his mate who is a mostly red color.

I am glad that our house is so isolated and that the neighbors cannot see into our yard.

I am carrying a number of things to fight what I call THE Coyote Wars. This includes a top of a metal garbage pail and a stick to bang it , large bottle of ammonia, a radio blaring  plugged in the basement with the window open to let out the sound. I also have a large stick to hit one if it does come near me or the pets.  It is a war of keeping these wild dogs away from my pets.

I fight it with noise, bad smells and threats to these creatures rather than guns.  We have a dog, a cat and fifteen domestic ducks that live in a good-sized shed.  Each day I have to get up early to feed them and also make sure that they are safe from the furry family that lives on the bog behind our home. The Coyote family is made up of a very large male with silvery gray hair, his mate who is a mostly red color and two or three of their gray offspring. 

We are lucky enough to have over two acres of land abutting the loveliest cranberry bog on Cape Cod. We have enough land to have this assortment of pets but we also have to guard against the growing population of bold Coyotes.  Sill and his family hate noise and they hate the smell of ammonia. They are not afraid of much else including dogs and humans these days. I have no intention of killing or injuring these Coyotes but just make sure that they do not grab one of my ducks for a meal, eat my cat or attack my dog.

I am not being paranoid since I have seen the large male standing right at the edge of our property where the grass meets the woods. He sits and watches me, waiting for me to slip up. His name is Sill and he is one of the Coyotes that the coyote researcher has given a name.  Sill is the size of a German Shepard. He has very shiny fur and appears very healthy for a Coyote.  Last year Sill and his family were living in the large house near us that also abuts the bog. The owners of the house decided to spend the winter in Florida and the Coyotes moved right under their large deck overlooking the Bog. This is where the pups were born and they stayed until people were starting to come around again.  

One day last winter we had an incident with Sill and his family. Last February early one Sunday morning I let Lucy off her lease. She was running around the grassy area while I was tending to the ducks. All of a sudden Sill came out with another Coyote and started chasing Lucy around the yard. Lucy is a large Akita/Lab mix and weighs about 98 lbs. Lucy finally ran back to the house and by that time my husband heard me scream and came out. I put Lucy in the house and the ducks in their shed while my husband yelled at the Coyotes. All three Coyotes stood there defiantly and stared us down without budging at all. Finally they walked over to their home under the deck at the neighbors. 

A short time later a man pulled up, intending to do a termite inspection of the home and the decks. I warned him not to crawl under the deck and he was grateful for the advice.  

This morning I happened to see Sill walking way down by the Bog and this reinforced that I had to continue this silly war. These Coyotes are here to stay and we have to try to live among them and at the same time enjoy living in the country.

That hawk almost got my duck

Poor Butterfly (the duck) was attacked by a hawk last week

But I chased the hawk, and Butterfly got away. Below my ducks help rack up the leaves.