Ducks on the Pond

A creek passes within about 150 feet of my home. There is a eddy in the creek just where it goes under my street, which creates a deep pool. The pool attracts a lot of wildlife. Every time I pass it on my way to and from school, I stop to see if anything's happening there. It's a little window into the natural world around us.


Every year around this time, a life and death struggle takes place there. The contestants are baby steelhead trout and ducks.

Over the course of each summer, I see a gradual increase in the number of steelhead fingerlings in the pool. I've never seen any adult steelhead there, so I guess the fingerlings drift downstream from their birthing place and stop in the pool because it is so deep. By the time school starts, there are hundreds of fingerlings in the pool. After awhile, ducks and other birds discover the fish and start hanging out at the pool too.


The steelhead are at a big disadvantage because they have nowhere to go. By late summer/early fall the water level in the creek is so low that it isn't flowing to the bay. The trout are stuck in the pool. This allows the ducks to calmly float on the surface and casually pick off the trout one by one.

Last year the trout were almost wiped out. They weren't, obviously, because some came back this year to lay eggs, but it was close. One morning last fall I counted 14 ducks on the pond at once, all looking for a quick bite to eat.

I haven't seen more than 4 ducks at one time on the pool this year, which has helped the little fish. I still see dozens of 2" long fingerlings in the pool. Missing, however, are the big ones: a couple of fish that had grown to around 6 inches in length. Did they escape downstream, or did one of the ducks get them?

Each year, I find myself hoping for one good rainstorm to raise the level of the creek high enough that the fish can escape downstream to the bay. Would this save the fish?

Not really, for the bay and ocean are full of other predators. Still, it gives the fish a fighting chance.

Better than being stuck in a pond with no place to go and hungry ducks floating above.