Just curious what ducks other folks are seeing on their ponds this spring? Here are a few that have visited my pond in south central Iowa:
Northern shoveler aka spoonbill
[img:center][/img]

Lesser Scaup aka bluebill
[img:center][/img]

Wood Duck pair
[img:center][/img]

Ring necked duck
[img:center][/img]

We have had a pair of Mallards pretty much living at our place for the last month or so. Also had a few Ring Necks. Not much else.

So far,

Lots of Mallards
Hooded Megansers
Buffleheads
Lots of Woodies
Blue winged Teals
Lesser Scaups

others

Great Egret
Belted Kingfishers

and of course!

Lots of GBH
Lots and lots and lots of geese

I've also had several pairs of blue wing teal, as well as mallards.
We've also seen 3 hooded merganser hens for the past few weeks, and I'm hoping they will make use of one of my wood duck boxes.

I was watching one of the hen mergansers feeding and was surprised to see her gulping down bullfrog tadpoles! I have heard/read/learned on the forum that fish really don't eat them due to a natural toxin in their skin, but evidently fish ducks don't mind. And since my pond has ga-zillions of them, win-win..

Lone pair of mallard duck. Female must have nested nearby as male just keeps a watchful eye and does circles in the pond. Fortunately our dog leaves them alone but has learned to run off the Canada geese that keep trying to take over the pond.

last year had a wood duck pair and was hoping so we would see one this year but no such luck.

So far we have seen:

Mallards
Woodies
Green winged teal
Blue winged teal
Bufflehead
Widgeon
Shovelers
Canvasback
Goldeneye?
Canadian geese
Swans
Sandhill cranes

I'm sure we've missed some but that's the list so far. Thanks.

Bryan

Hey all I live in Michigan's upper peninsula so far the waterfowl we have seen include. A nesting pair of mallards a nesting pair of wood ducks a nesting pair of hooded mergansers in one of my wood duck boxes. Today for the first time since we bought the place over a year ago a pair of giant Canadian geese.

The bass in my pond and a close clients pond haven't read that book either because they eat the tadpoles too. The BG will peck at them as well.

This year I've seen Mallards, Blue-Wing Teal and a constant revolving door of giant canada geese. Plus at least one Blue Heron.

A first for us this morning. An American Coot on the pond. I don't recall ever seeing one before. Swims like a duck but looks more like a chicken when walking on the shore. Pretty cool.

Despite my best efforts to chase the geese away this year, a pair with two goslings walked out of a thicket yesterday to take up residence. I guess we should be thankful there are not more goslings.

Bryan!! Missed hearing from you on the forum! Hope you are well. How is the pond? With all of those ducks around you must have some goodies for them in the pond? Share some pictures and glad to see you are still lurking.

With all the rain this weekend you must be pretty close to overflowing!

No geese, knock on wood. One pair of woodies that have been hanging around, although it appears they don't like my wood duck nesting box. Lots of fly bys, but the only two I can count on seeing every tine are the GBH, and the kingfisher.
I've got millions and millions of bullfrog tadpoles. I find them spit out on the dock occasionally. I think the kingfisher might get one every now and then by mistake, but he rejects them.,,

Howdy canyoncreek,

Pond is well, the ducks and geese are busy doing there thing on it. Lots of projects going on around here yet, just planted another 350 trees a couple Saturdays back. The pond is still over my water control box but it's down since I opened the gate. The road is flooded to the north since I opened the gate, if you have a big enough truck you can still get through. Thanks.

Bryan