ducklings

[marycatelli]

Quack, quack, quack goes the duck, and all her little ducklings -- she has a flotilla -- follow along, and the writer winces.

Research obviously is necessary to determine what is the correct season, but my limited memories of when you get the ducklings tend toward roses in bloom in the vicinity, rather than apple trees, daffodils, and crocuses. . . .

So, do I rework the little details of the plants?  They were only local color.

Or have the heroine conclude that time is odd in this location?  It's not as if it would be the only odd thing -- the ducks are gold.

And I haven't even done the research yet.  Perhaps it's just an early clutch.

Comments

[metaphorsbwithu.livejournal.com]

I'm not an expert but I do live in Louisiana and a lot of ducks pass through here. ;-)

My understanding is that ducks usually breed in the warmer months (no specific month) although females can get mixed up and produce "flotillas" out of season - especially when the weather is unseasonably mild.

Unfortunately, because of harsher conditions the young'uns don't have a very high rate of survival. This almost certainly has affected the genetic makeup of ducks and nature does have a way of sorting things out.

Just passing on the little I learned about such things from my dad who was a real outdoorsman.

[marycatelli]

Yeah, so the the big question is -- how early or late I can put the warm. . . .

Fortunately, the heroine's lived close enough to nature that I'll be able to put any infodumping in her mouth.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I can't see a problem with apple blossom and ducklings coinciding, although I think if there were also daffodils, the daffs would strike me as unusually late.

[marycatelli]

That's the disadvantage of writing it during high summer -- I have to try to remember the succession of spring, and sometimes they get jumbled.

[headnoises.livejournal.com]

A quick look-around says they start breeding in January, and nest for a month; they take two months to go from hatching to self-supporting.

So long as they'd be flying by late fall, you've got a lot of wiggle room, but you might want to put some information into that just to give a reason for the color, and indicate something about the character. Plus, I love little info dumps. :D

[marycatelli]

that'll be cool