Each spring wild mallards come to nest in the enclosed courtyard of our apartment building in Washington, DC. I document as much of the yearly adventure as I can. I do this mainly because they are so much fun. But I also think there must be others out there with courtyard ducklings, and perhaps my experience can help.

The ducks need a lot of support to successfully raise their babies here. They need ramps on the fountain and the fountain and pavement areas kept clean. I also have to make sure management refrains from pesticides and herbicides on the lawn.

The ducklings also need to be guarded from crows for the first two weeks of life. The mother duck does her best to keep the crows away, but she can't completely protect them when they're running all over foraging for insects. (In a natural environment, the ducklings would spend more time in the water or never be far from water, where crows can't catch them).

They also need to be fed two or three times a day. I feed them a combination of whole grains - defrosted (cooked) corn, soaked wheat flakes and oat flakes, cooked rice, and peas - plus a supplement of canned fish-based cat food (1 or 2 cans daily amongst all the ducklings). They also eat a lot of grass, plants and bugs in the courtyard, so I think they get a well rounded diet. At least all have grown up healthy on this diet for the past three summers.

Finally they need to be led up on the rooftop when they can fly so that they will fly away to their wild lives. They are so used to the courtyard as their entire universe, that they don't think to fly beyond the walls unless someone shows them the world. A few ducklings will bravely follow the mother out of the courtyard when she makes one of her daily trips, but for most of the ducklings, that's just too big and scary a leap.

Taking them to the roof is a good intermediate step. Once they can view the outside world from the safety of their rooftop for a few days, then they have the courage to take on the world. So at about 12 weeks of age, all fly off into the wild blue yonder.