27/02/2020
This silly duck gave me a scare when she didnt come out for breakfast downstairs. So glad she didn't fly away.
Daffodil and friends
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This page is about a duck named Daffodil who showed up on my railing and never left. She is one of m
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Daffodil’s Journey
One evening on January 31st, 2019, I saw something across the fence. I thought it was a goose. The next day, I went outside to look around the yard and beach lanes. I couldn’t find the critter. I sat on our back porch and felt like something was looking at me. Sure enough, upstairs on the railing was the duck looking into my bathroom window. I said hello as it looked down at me and then immediately started researching bird photos online as it watched me from above. I learned this is a Muscovy duck, more closely related to the goose than the duck. I called the wild bird rescue and they advised to put out some food and see if it acts wild or domesticated. I put some veggies out and it gobbled them all up. I asked the rescue place if anyone could adopt this duck or find out if anyone was missing one because we live along the ocean and nobody here has ever had a duck. No such luck and I had no idea how to raise a duck.
A few days later, I called her Daffy, thinking she was a male for months. Finally realized it was a “she”, so I changed her name to Daffodil just in case she stayed for a while. She stayed on our upstairs deck and railing for four months. We put a wading pool up there and she just watched the cats go to and fro, she watched the ocean, and every late night or early morning she would fly to the beach. We’d see her footprints in the sand, hoping she was finding the food and nutrients she needed, besides the food I was preparing for her. We wondered many times how long a duck could stay on a railing or deck and not want to fly away for good. Day in and day out, there she was peeking in the bathroom and kitchen windows.
In June, she finally left the deck and flew downstairs and made her home in the yard and under the cool deck. We moved her wading pool under the palm trees and fed her in the same spot each day. Five days later, I noticed she was not active at all. Her health took a turn and she could not walk or fly. I still was learning all about ducks and had no idea what was wrong, but I knew she was bad off. The problem was, she never let me pick her up or pet her before this, and I couldn’t crawl under the deck. I came across a duck FB group months earlier and one of the caring strangers from the group happens to live across the island and she offered to come help me get the duck out from under the deck. She was awesome and got Daffodil to scoot out and she was able to hold her and pet her, something that she didn’t allow before. She drove her to a bird vet and I followed them. Daffodil laid an egg in the car! The kind stranger is Susan, and is now my duck friend. She is an angel for rushing over to help. The vet said it appeared to be her first time laying eggs, she probably ended up at our house and stayed once she realized it was a safe place, but then months later, her body used up all her calcium for egg development which led to losing her strength to walk and fly. He said she probably had a day left to live, so it was a good thing I had help getting her to the vet. I nursed her back to health with special calcium medicine and pain killers and she let me hold and pet her the entire time she was not well. I never imagined she would ever allow that. The vet said she could either get well, lay her eggs and leave our yard, or stay and make it her home, but warned me that once she felt better, she might not let me hold and pet her again.
He was right about her staying and she won’t let me hold her, but I can still feed her from my hands and pet her as she’s eating. She became a fun sassy girl and she rules the roost around here. She is the boss of all the cats. She chirps at us if we get too close, she goes right up to the cats and tries to peck at them and she is so funny and entertaining. It’s been ten months so far and she’s still here even though she is capable of flying away at any time. I’m not sure where she came from or what her journey will hold, but I told her she has a safe home for as long as she wants.
