You must have a lot fewer predators than we do here in the US. Dogs, cats, coyotes, opossums, raccoons, wild pigs, etc, etc, would make raising a duck family on shore a perilous & probably futile endeavour.
We don't have raccoons or coyotes in NZ. The rest of your list: yes. Rats, mustelids* and hawks are predators here, but Trevor keeps her eye on the sky and I have plenty of cover (tree canopy). I have many rat bait stations around, too, plus one ferret trap.
Can't speak for everybody else on PB, but our little pond place in the woods of east Texas was a true blessing, a refuge in time of panic.
Sounds like a multi-faceted sanctuary.
Do tell an ignoramus from far away: what are the hieroglyphics in your signature?
*
Ferrets, stoats, weasels.
