Yesterday afternoon I took my neighbor's two dogs on a walk to a lake down the street where a number of mallard ducks hang out. We were walking along the lake when I noticed that a female duck was swimming along side us like she was following us. At first I thought it was just a coincident and the duck wasn't really following us, but when I stopped she stopped too, turned towards me and just starred at me. When I started walking again she started swimming. She was just about a couple of feet out in the water and I was just a few feet up on land so we were pretty close. As she was swimming along she kept looking at me.
On three occasions, when I stopped to let the dogs sniff around, she came up on land and walked towards me. I had to back up because I didn't want the dogs to try to lunge at her but I wonder how close she would have come had I been alone. Half way around the lake another female mallard duck joined her in swimming along side us and also came pretty close on land one time. One time I sat down by the water and the two mallards were just 2-3 feet from me, facing me for a long time. They just stayed there until I started walking whereby they started swimming again.
It takes about 20-30 minutes to walk around this little lake and the first duck followed me around the whole thing. They clearly were following me and seemed quite curious, not afraid at all.
Why would a duck act like this? Is it normal behavior for them? I suspected that maybe one or both ducks were raised around humans or are used to being fed by humans.
I thought it was pretty cool to have such a close encounter with a duck since you normally don't get to do that. I just thought it was a bit odd too, though. It may just be in my head but it seemed to me like I really had a connection to with the first duck. It looked like she was looking right at me and was as curious about me as I was her. Am I reading too much into all this?
I don't know a whole lot about waterfowl but I thought people here might.
Thanks!
On three occasions, when I stopped to let the dogs sniff around, she came up on land and walked towards me. I had to back up because I didn't want the dogs to try to lunge at her but I wonder how close she would have come had I been alone. Half way around the lake another female mallard duck joined her in swimming along side us and also came pretty close on land one time. One time I sat down by the water and the two mallards were just 2-3 feet from me, facing me for a long time. They just stayed there until I started walking whereby they started swimming again.
It takes about 20-30 minutes to walk around this little lake and the first duck followed me around the whole thing. They clearly were following me and seemed quite curious, not afraid at all.
Why would a duck act like this? Is it normal behavior for them? I suspected that maybe one or both ducks were raised around humans or are used to being fed by humans.
I thought it was pretty cool to have such a close encounter with a duck since you normally don't get to do that. I just thought it was a bit odd too, though. It may just be in my head but it seemed to me like I really had a connection to with the first duck. It looked like she was looking right at me and was as curious about me as I was her. Am I reading too much into all this?
I don't know a whole lot about waterfowl but I thought people here might.
Thanks!
