Expert: Roger Lederer - 3/14/2007

Question
Just wanting to know how to attract malards to our back yard.  We have a pool, lots of trees and near a pond(quarter mi.) that always has Canadian geese and malards.
For the past several Easters we have gotten domestic flightless ducks(among a roan-sp? and a Swedish black) but they never seem to thrive when we let them go to live at our nearby pond.  This yr. we would like to have ducks around, but the wild malards who are able to fly and be free whenever they wanted. How do we attract them? What about welcoming nesting? What do malards look for-we're in tough competition with their familiar pond.  Thanks for any suggestions or insight.

Answer
Well, I can't really give you any advice without seeing what your pond looks like, how close it is to houses, what kind of plants it has in it, how deep it is, etc. Sounds like you don't have the kind of food that they like. Ducks feed in the water while geese feed on land, mostly, so it's the pond quality that counts. Provide me with as much info as you can and I'll try to provide some advice. Roger Lederer