Rat, Ducks and Geese

What does a rat, ducks and geese all have in common? They all live in the pond outside out apartment. Yes, that is right, a rat lives there as well. It never accrued to my little brain that rats could swim, but then again, I never really thought about it. Today was one of those magical days. It was warm and I had my little family with me. We went to feed the ducks and geese. There is a mean goose that attacks others so I was not happy when he joined the group, but Ben, being wonderful, distracted the goose so I could feed the others without him attacking anyone.

Then something interesting happened. A new little creature joined the mix. From a distance we could not figure out what it was. We knew that it was not a beaver because of its tail, we considered it to be an otter but were not sure at all what it might be. As it got closer we figured out that it was a rat. I have never seem such a big rat before. He was the sweetest little guy ever. I half expected to see him snatch a little duckling away, but he never touched them. He swam into the group, grabbed a piece of bread that no one was after and then swam out again. He repeated this a few times. He respected everyones space. I was impressed. Sadly he was not looking where he was swimming and got to close to the geese and their babies and one goose attacked him. I am hoping that he just dived and swam for safety. When the goose was attacking him the mean goose got in the way so it became a fight between the two geese.

Another fascinating thing that I saw while feeding the ducks and geese, was the geese parenting. When we fed the ducks, it was 'fend for yourself.' If the little ducklings got in the way the bigger ducks would just swim over them. Yes there was a little bit of respect, but nothing really to take note of. When we went to feed the baby geese, mommy and daddy goose never touched the bread until their babies had had some bread. Then they never took bread away from the babies either. I would have thought that the ducks would have done something like that and the geese would be the mean ones. Then on the other hand, geese keep their babies, ducks share all the kids. One day you will see a mother duck with 12 ducklings, the next day, she will only have 3. Its as if the ducks just rotate the ducklings.

Our friend, the rat

Daddy and Cyndi feeding the ducks

The three little geese. I want one - as long as it stays like this

One of the mother ducks and her ducklings.

I love this little duck. He was a little nervous coming into the middle of all the action so I would through bread to him. He is such a little cutie!