"infiniteMPG" wrote:

We live in west central Florida, just south of Tampa Bay. The area we
are in is 1 acre wooded lots and we happen to be on a lake/pond. It's
probably about 1-2 acres in size. Occasionally we have a duck or
other water bird settled on the water, but we see other places around
that are much different. Some little bodies of water of similar size
have a load of water birds hanging out seemingly all the time.

We have fish (small fish, bluegills, some bass) and turtles out
there. So how can we attract more water birds to our little spot of
water????


Typically when you see the same geese and ducks that stay at particular
ponds/lakes all the time those are domesticated birds (they are pets), not
wild water fowl. If you want to have your pond populated with a few
geese/ducks you will need to raise your own from hatchlings, you will need
to provide them with a safe shelter, proper food, and almost always their
wings are clipped so that they can't fly any distance. Do not under any
circumstance attempt to lure wild water fowl in hopes of domesticating them,
you will kill them because when they finally join up with the migrating
flocks (and they most definitely will) they will have lost their survival
skills.

A lot of my neighbors keep domesticated geese and ducks as barnyard birds,
they do excellent guard duty, better than dogs. I have wild water fowl
visiting all the time, all kinds, but I leave them be, I don't attempt to
hand feed them, they come and go as they please. Most of the summer I have
flocks of Canada geese that stay for days at a time before moving on but
there are two in particular that stay all summer, they raise their young at
my pond. But within a few days of hatching they move them off from pond to
pond before the preditors discover them (there are many ponds around here)
I don't know if their young ever return, it's impossible to tell one Canada
goose from another, can't tell males from females either. But the same
mated pair that come back each year have been coming here for the six years
I've been here, Canada Geese mate for life... they are very territorial,
they know this is their yard, they move all new arrivals to the far corners.
I know it's them becaue they are the only two out of hundreds that come
right up to my deck three times a day for bread. I never go near them, I
toss the bread from my window.

Yesterday afternoon I had a surprise visitor.

My resident geese:
http://i39.tinypic.com/245hx6x.jpg
http://i44.tinypic.com/29546dk.jpg

All of sudden a noobie, I didn't see this fella arrive:
http://i41.tinypic.com/e00pbm.jpg

The geese took off and this guy sat there for a few minutes, next I looked
he was gone:
http://i40.tinypic.com/2yxk9cl.jpg

Mr. Mallard hasn't been back.