Yesterday I opened the duck house pop door for the first time, and while Bert joined them, the new ducks didn’t venture into the pond. But today was different; they had their first swims in the pond!

Here they are in their house, after I opened the pop door:

As mentioned in the video I posted on YouTube earlier today, since they weren’t showing any sign of wanting to go out, I basically nudged them out the door. I can understand their hesitation, but sometimes a bit more encouragement is needed.

The three female ducks went out first.

(Fun fact digression: female ducks are called “hens” or just “ducks”, while males are called “drakes”, but I don’t bother with that, since that might cause confusion with the chicken hens.)

Bert showed them around — “here is where you can get treats and steal fish food when the human does afternoon rounds”:

Then I encouraged the boys out, and they joined the girls in a corner of the pond:

Duck zoomies:

Sven flapping his wings:

Flapping, dunking, and splashing in the shallow end of the pond:

Flapping wings:

Nice formation:

Backlit and sunbeams from the other side of the pond:

A while later, they returned to their run for a rest:

Nap time; all that swimming was hard work!

(That’s Bert in the pool.)