Are mother ducks as fierce as bears? (June 30, 2008)

Woodsmen warn forest explorers to be wary of being caught between a mother bear and her cub due to the mother’s fierce instinct to protect. I walked out to my pond the other day and surprised a duck family hidden beneath a bush hanging over the water. As soon as I neared, with fire drill precision, the ducklings made an arrow straight swim across the pond. Meanwhile, the mother duck quaked riotously as she swam in multiple “S” curves back and forth across the pond. Her determination to distract me was parallel in energy level, if not ferocity, with a mother bear.

This is the second time in the past two weeks that I’ve seen mother ducks defending their young. While at Lake Oroville, we saw a duck and her young brood near the dock. As we watched their rollicking with delight, we suddenly saw, coming up from the depths, a dark shadow trailing them. The mother hurried the ducklings along but the fish stayed in pursuit. Suddenly, the duck rose out of the water, and dove down to attack the persistent shadowy menace. This happened several times until the fish retreated. This duck did get between her young and the invader much like bears are reputed to do.

Speaking of bears, my husband saw a bear when he was up at the crack of dawn on tax day, April 15. It was on the other side of the fence trying to get over it. After several attempts, the bear gave up and retreated in the other direction. Our friends thought he might have imagined this event until it was reported in the newspaper that a young bear had been sighted in Loomis. Have there been any more sightings?

Baby Emu Thrives in Loomis (JUne 24, 2008)

For the second year in a row our Emus have successfully hatched a chick.

When we first got the Emus, we thought they both were males. Then one day we found a huge avocado in the pasture. To our surprise and delight, our Emus started nesting and that huge avocado was actually an egg.

The father emu diligently cared for the eggs and didn’t eat much while sitting on the nest for nearly eight weeks. Then in the late spring this baby hatched.

These Australian critters seem to have adapted to life in Loomis.