We have ducks who return every year to lay their eggs in our high school courtyard and every year there are vultures who fly over and try to eat the eggs and steal the babies after they are born. We have placed a huge realistic looking owl near her nest (we heard that helps) but still need something else more substantial to protect them. What can we do???

Mallards are considered waterfowl as well and I feed mine cracked corn and grain ( wild bird starter). Also give them nuts and dried berries wild bird food which they love. If you mow your grass, you can give them fresh grass clippings and catch bugs for them that the mower stirs up-beetles,grasshoppers etc. I give them dead bugs from the pool and in the skimmer.I have also visited the bait store to get them worms and crickets. They go crazy over them!! Shoveling up leaves from under our bushes is good so they can forage under the leaves for bugs and worms.We are having to keep them penned until they feather out due to a hawk taking five of them so I am trying to make their dining experience enjoyable while they are temporarily cooped up. Best of luck Belinda

Sorry I didn't come back sooner, Helen. It would be illegal to trap the birds unless you could get the DNR to issue a permit and I haven't heard of that happening. I expect the birds would beat you back. It would be difficult to move them any way since they are flocking birds and a flock would be too difficult to catch and transport at one time. I expect using the pups to chase the birds could make the DNR unhappy. But it would depend on the situation. I would check with the authorities in advance and I know they would forbid it when the birds were nesting. I would be more concerned about injuries to the dogs than to the birds. If you have ever faced an angry duck or goose you know what I mean. Sandy

Nearly all of the wild geese we see today do not migrate... Back in the early 1960's Canadian Geese were on the endangered list and nearing extinction. There is a Wildlife preservation group called "Ducks Unlimited" that was formed by waterfowl hunters and they began a program of creating habitat and hatching Canadian Geese and a number of different wild duck species which they released into the wild all along the eastern flyway. (Major wildfowl migration route), The problem today is that the geese that were hatched & released have little to no social interaction with the true wild geese, so they have not adopted the habit of migrating. To compound the problem, the geese that were hatched & released do not have the natural fear of man that is present in the true wild geese, so they have no problem with living on any available pond whether its out in the country or right in the middle of an urban area and as a consequence they have become a nuisance in many places.