I think it was the day after we opened the pool we discovered a male and female duck standing near the edge of the pool around 7:00 am. Once I opened our bedroom window to get a better look they flew away. The next day they were swimming in the water; again just opening the window scared them off. We had thought that maybe once the water was cleaner (it was a bit dingy after removing the cover) it would have no appeal to them. Well we were wrong.
During that week I saw them a couple of times, but not every morning, either in the water or standing along the side. Dave was talking to our neighbor behind us one night and she told him that she has found them under a bush on the side of their house so they might have a nest there.
This past weekend we saw them standing along the edge again and this time let Baxter out to scare them. Well all they did when he got near them was jump in the water. Of course Baxter won't go in the pool so they swam around for a bit until Dave turned the filter on and then they flew off.
Didn't see them for a couple of days until yesterday when I saw just the female swimming in the pool. I banged something on the patio and it scared her off. But evidently now the filter being on doesn't scare them off. This morning Baxter woke us up at 5:00 am barking at the sliding glass doors and low and behold when I looked out the window I could see the silhouette of a duck. Eventually it flew away. But then around 8:00 I saw the female standing on the edge and yelled at it until it flew away.
Did some research and discovered that usually a dog will scare them away for good after a few times of the dog going after them or the dog needs to go into the water after them (of course Baxter would never do this). I also read that it is suggested we float beach balls and other pool floaties in the pool and/or string mylar tape across the pool or some fishing line to distract them from landing in the water. So tomorrow I am off to the stores to buy some stuff.
3 comments:
i find it interesting that they even go in the pool with it being chlorinated and all.
do the boys find it interesting or neat?!?
I thought the chlorinated water and with the other chemicals in there that they would be discouraged, but guess not.
Every other morning when the boys wake up and come into our room they will ask to see the ducks.
Thought about setting up a small cheap kiddie pool for the ducks but don't know if they would fall for it.
Our friends had ducks take over their backyard pool a few years ago. It got so bad that the ducks would rush to the sliding door when Carl and Margie tried to go outside, hissing, quacking and nipping at their ankles, letting them know to whom that pool really belonged. Our friends have moved now, so I'm not really sure who won that battle.
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