Duckie Arrives

We get the occasional duck wandering up from the creek at the bottom of the property. Ducks are not unusual here. What was unusual was this one.

She turned up one morning, alone, moving differently from the usual mob that passes through. No frantic waddling off when I opened the back door. She just stood there, looking at me. That's when I noticed her bill — the top half was gone. Not chipped, not cracked. Gone. Just the lower mandible remaining, which meant she could barely scoop food the way a normal duck would.

How she'd survived that long I have no idea. Ducks rely on that upper bill for everything — filtering water, gripping food, preening. Without it, she would have been unable to eat anything solid properly. She was thin. Clearly had been struggling for a while.

Figuring Out What to Feed Her

The first challenge was obvious — what can you actually feed a duck with no upper bill? Bread was out (it's bad for ducks at the best of times). Anything she needed to pick up and grip wasn't going to work well. She needed something she could scoop with that lower bill and swallow without much manipulation.

We landed on a warm porridge mix — chicken feed soaked in water until it broke down into a soft, scoopable consistency. The idea being she could get the nutrition from the feed without needing to do much with it. Just dip her bill in, scoop, swallow.

First attempt she was cautious. Stood back, watched me put the bowl down, waited until I stepped well away. Then she moved in and tried it. Slow at first, getting used to the consistency. But she ate. That was the main thing.

Setting Up a Routine

After that first morning she came back the next day. And the day after that. Always in the morning, always alone. We started putting a bowl out before 8am so it was ready when she arrived. She'd come up the bank from the creek, cross the lawn and head straight to the same spot near the back step.

We called her Duckie. Not the most creative name, but it stuck immediately and felt right.

At this stage we genuinely weren't sure if she'd make it. She was underweight, the injury was clearly old and healed over but permanent, and a wild duck that can't eat properly in the wild has a very short life expectancy. All we could do was make sure she had a reliable food source each morning and see how she went.

She kept coming back. That was enough for now.