And Then There Was One

The Loch Ness Monster lives in our apartment pond.

It's really rather distressing. We have this lovely little retention pond behind our apartment that exists as this miniature ecosystem. The water is murky and dark, thick with reeds. The workmen here stock the pond with goldfish, and somehow, other animals are drawn here.

We've seen blue and white herons, turtles, bullfrogs, bunnies, and of course, ducks. Recently a mallard pair laid some eggs (seven, I think) in the reeds. We waited around, wondering when they'd be born, until one day. David was working from home. I suddenly got a one-line email on my work computer: "We have ducklings!"

He took pictures. Lots. And then he told me they were no good and I needed to get a telephoto lens for my camera. I know this.

Last night, we decided to eat our dinner out on the back porch. (Yay, summertime!) As I set down my plate, I caught my first sight of a duckling. He was bigger now. Excitedly, I jumped down to the side of the pond to search out his brothers and sisters... but there were none. Patito was solo.

I watched our patito truck across the water. It was a gusty day. His little body waved back and forth with the effort required to move against the wind. He was headed straight for something splashing and flopping in the water. It wasn't a goldfish. It was big. I worried that perhaps it was a wounded duckling, one of his brothers. 

Then suddenly, our little duck startled and started swimming in the other direction. Whatever had been splashing suddenly disappeared. I think perhaps that patito was so focuses on swimming and searching for food, he hadn't actually seen this other animal. When he finally did, he fled.

Moments later Vid came out the door with his plate. "What was that?" he shouted, pointing out at the pond. He was looking off to the left, and I turned just in time to see a large furry dark shape flip its long slick tail into the water and disappear. Vid turned and looked at me, "What was that?"

We went down by the pond again to investigate, but to no avail. We have some theories, though.

1. We think we have a muskrat living here, entering through a pipe that is half submerged in the eastern wall of the pond. At first we thought maybe it was an otter. But after doing some research with highly reliable Wikipedia, we found they don't choose to live in retention ponds. And weasels, as far as we know, don't swim.

2. As for our pobre patito, at first we thought the muskrat was attacking the babies and had left only this lone duckling and his parents. But muskrats don't eat birds. At least, not according to Wikipedia. Plus, the grown mallards currently in the pond are mean to our little duck. So, we don't think they are his parents. Patito doesn't seem old enough to be on his own yet.

3. Vid now thinks that perhaps the family fled the muskrat, and our little duck was a straggler who missed the boat (train? flight?). The other two mallard ducks living here just live here. We're not sure if patito is trying to connect with them, but don't seem to be letting him. Poor little orphan.

We leave for MA soon. I hope when we come back, our little duck is still there. I also want to catch another glimpse of Nessie.