Am I hallucinating or are there nocturnal ducks?

[CrapBucket]

About an hour ago I went to put some stuff in my outside bins and could hear a duck quacking, which is wierd as my nearest pond is about 20 mins walk away. Going to bed now and the house is silent, windows closed, but I can hear the duck, NON STOP.

I thought ducks slept at night? Is it in distress? I definitely am... its very loud...

Definitely not geese honking as they fly overhead? I can hear some right now.

Maybe a fox is near or has caught it but also don’t discount the effect on urban night pollution on wildlife :(

Not night pollution - LIGHT pollution

I heard some wood pigeons in the dark about an hour ago which is unusual!

Where is it, in your garden ? Mating season is starting for ducks, and they can shout a lot, but it is strange to be so far from the pond.

If its overhead geese it must be a very long convoy/going round in circles.

I was thinking if a fox had it, surely it would not stay alive for an hour...

Maybe its sitting quacking at those horrible up-down-lights everyone seems to have on their houses these days, polluting the sky 😢

Not in my garden, somewhere nearby - I suppose sound travels well at night so maybe it is at a pond in someone's garden. Or a hot tub. Or a closer pond that I don't know about. Do they mate at night then?

I hear birds at night and I'm sure that's new

can't see why ducks would be different, grumbling about insomnia maybe.

If there's no one around to hear a duck quack, does it even make a sound?

😂🦆

Are you sure it’s not a squirrel? Their alarm call sounds very quacky.

I have a few ducks-they unlike my hens,will stay out at night unless you put them to bed 😂 in the duck house.you don’t need a pond to keep ducks just a source of water to clean themselves and one for food.could be a neighbour has forgotten to put the duck away for the night -they will quack if they sense danger.

Does this mean I could have guard ducks?

@JarByTheDoor not sure they’d be much use-mine are v quiet silver appleyard ducks and the only time I hear them is first thing when it’s food time or I get their bath out 😂
geese are brilliant guard birds though!

I'd be concerned that geese wouldn't be too discriminating about who to guard against and I'd end up turfed out of my own house 😐

Live by a pond

The ducks and geese sound like their having a full blown rave currently but I actually hadn't noticed as I'm so used to the noise it doesn't register anymore... until I saw this post 😂

What is happening tonight in the bird world?!

A couple of hours ago we were getting into our car in a car park in the nearest large town to us and clearly heard birds singing loudly in the trees along the edge of the car park. It sounded like the dawn chorus but it was 1am!

Maybe it's sitting quacking at those horrible up-down-lights everyone seems to have on their houses these days, polluting the sky 😢

also don’t discount the effect on urban light pollution on wildlife :(

I think this was probably it with the birds we heard tonight, unfortunately. The car park was very well lit.

How and when are birds meant to sleep properly when it's light 24/7 because of floodlit car parks and houses lit up like Blackpool illuminations?!

Full moon (nearly).

Oooh @Mollymalone123 (and sorry for hijacking OP) how quiet is you silver appleyards? So quiet that I can keep them in town? I am desperate to hatch some but my friend said they are incredibly noisy and messy. I was looking at the miniature silver appleyards, have a brinsea mini eco and 1/3 acre garden with pond but I’ll prefer if they stay out of it.

It's nearly full moon, so the nights are very light atm. That might be why birds are singing in the small hours?

Yes ducks make a racket 24/7. I can confirm this as I live very near an overpopulated duck pond and I hear them quacking away most nights.

They do have squabbles and are very noisy all night long when the mating season starts. They usually have a lifelong mate but there will be rival males, and female ducks get assaulted by any rouge male who her mate can’t fight off. Sadly sometimes they get drowned if a male is very violent or if more than one male is trying to mate. The loud quacking can be a female trying to get away from males, or males fighting, or a duck calling for her mate, if she has had to fly off to escape the gangs of males.
There are more males than females. It is a tough time for female Mallards.

@ChiefPearlClutcher I personally would have the larger quieter female silver appleyards.they are actually quiet as there’s nothing in our garden to over excite them and I don’t want them breeding.They will use any body of water but we have a small wildlife pond and they haven’t bothered with it as we use a plastic sand shell and fill it with water for them to wash and splash in and then a separate bucket with fresh water every day to use to help them eat their food.We have chickens and a rabbit and two dogs and they all get along.Ducks will destroy bits of your garden though as they dig about looking for snails pests etc but if u have hardy established plants it’s not too bad.you will end up with a muddy area though because they are messy buggers when the eat! Aldo you do need to ‘put them to bed’ in their duck house at dusk but later if u wish -as long as your area is fix proof-honestly though it’s been hard because of avian flu and having to make sure they have an area big enough to meet their needs but also so that birds can’t enter their area.Once the last of my birds have passed unless they come up with a vaccine for bird flu,I won’t be getting anymore

Hedgehogs make a sound very much like duck quacks at various times. If they’re in danger/scared or trapped, if they are searching for food and are hungry and also sometimes, seemingly, just for no reason. Maybe you’ve got a hog in your garden?