Sixty days sounds like a lot, but is only about 8.5 weeks.

The ducks swimming and/or sleeping on the pond at night (they can swim with half their brain and sleep with the other half):

Greeting the ducks in their run in the morning:

Leafy treats:

Ducks jumping into the pond:

Hmm, the pop door didn’t open on the duck house this morning; the opener had an error, so maybe needs more attention. I recalibrated (again), and will see if it opens tomorrow:

Afternoon treats from the pond deck:

Bert seems to have taken a disliking to Sven; he chased him away from the treats:

I’ve seen Bert chasing Sven several times. He doesn’t chase any of the other ducks. Sven will be bigger than Bert when fully grown, so the tables may turn on that.

The ducks all spent the night outside again, as I expect will be the norm going forward. They slept on the pond and on the bank by the pond deck, which is one of Bert’s favorite spots.

I gave them treats from the pond deck again last night:

When I visited on morning rounds, I found them all on the bank by the pond deck:

I rearranged the run a bit to provide more shade without having to move the shade panel to access the duck house, which was probably a waste of time, since they’ve found their own shady spots:

I’ll probably remove the temporary run this weekend, if they’re done with it.

The ducks on the bank from above:

They explored the back lawn a little:

Hunting for tasty bugs:

Enjoying the afternoon shade:

A view of the pond, back lawn, and brown gazebo, with the ducks by the grasses:

Mealworm treats on afternoon rounds:

Last night the ducks all spent the night outside for the first time.

A cam shot from the previous night; maybe the last night they will spend inside their house:

Yesterday morning, eager to be let out:

A swim yesterday evening:

Evening mealworm treats (did you see the video posted earlier?):

When I went out just before sunset to close up the duck house for the night, they chose to stay outside. I closed the maintenance doors, but left the pop door open, so they could go inside from the pond if they wanted. Here they are just after sunset, maybe regretting their choices, but I’m sure Bert was reassuring them that it’ll be fine — he’s slept outside since he first went into the pond a year ago:

They spent most of the night on the bank in or near the run:

Nobody home:

Morning ducks:

I decided it was time to remove the pool in the temporary run, since they haven’t used it other than for drinking since going in the pond:

I replaced it with the paint tray as a water dish, though they can also drink from the waterer in the house during the day, or the pond anytime:

Swimming this morning:

We had lunch on the pond deck, and watched them slowly moving further amongst the grasses on the pond edge as the sun moved:

Later, they took advantage of the shade in the run:

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.)