Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Ducks on the pond

Would you try to keep ducks off your pond ? I know they eat fish but the ones on my pond are small - wood ducks, mallards,etc. Should someone worry about them eating your small bait fish?

I encourage wild ducks on my ponds.

Thanks but do they hurt your pond and fish?

Mallards and woodies will eat fish given the opportunity although they aren’t very efficient at catching them. Mergansers and a few other diving type ducks almost exclusively eat fish. I doubt that mallards and woodies would negatively impact your fish population from predation. Thanks.

Bryan

I don't like the idea of encouraging ducks or geese. Those things leave a mess everywhere they go.

If not from one end, it's the other.

Good answers! Migratory waterfowl are mostly okay because they don't stay. Diving ducks will eat fish. Learn the species and decide what to do. We encouraged wood ducks at LL,2 and tolerated others except cormorants and their ilk.

We also like woodies but haven’t seen any this year. No other ducks either , only a few cormorants which were encouraged to try to leave. We have a resident GBH which is ok to stay. Not sure why no woodies this year unless it’s the lack of standing timber left.

I think we had strange weather in the Central Flyway this year.

I usually see them in Kansas around Thanksgiving when they have ridden down from the northern states on the winds of the early cold fronts. We didn't have much in the way of cold fronts until the start of December. I have not seen any at our place all winter. I suspect they travelled a little off their preferred routes this season.

Pat, hopefully your lack of woodies this year was a weather effect, and not due to habitat reduction at your place. Fingers crossed that they come see you next fall/winter!

I determined my ducks are Pintails - I watch them closely - they do dive a lot but I see no fish brought up - according to what I am reading they are diving for the plant life in the pond and not the fish - if that is the case then I will let them roll - we enjoy watching them

These?

Yes Sir -Northern pintail according to my Birds of Texas book

I don't mind ducks especially during duck season but pulling up to pond and seeing 60 + canada geese is another thing. The last time it happened the water was nasty for a solid week.

My pond is leaking, and I've heard that duck poop is a good sealant. We get the occasional migrating pair, but the pond is small, so they're not comfortable to stay with dogs around. I have noticed that they eat more eggs than anything. I can have a good deposit of tadpole eggs in the shallows, but just one evening visit by a pair of Mallards will decimate the egg beds. Good cover will protect your fishery, IMO.

Geese are another issue - they poop on land and are not allowed in any way! They get shooed away by lead rain, and I do not mow the pond banks.

Cheers, -Hirsch