If the duck is the mother, it would be a shame to deprive the ducklings of their mother. Baby ducks need their mother to teach them to swim and eat like ducks. She has to rub oil on their bodies for them (from hers) to keep them from sinking until they can grow enough to produce their own. Is it possible to put the ducklings in a cage, set the cage near the area where you are seeing the duck to see if she/he shows interest without it being able to harm them? Make sure you watch from a safe distance so nothing else approaches/harms them. I have had ducks visit my backyard to collect the bird seeds that fall from my feeders. What are you feeding the babies? A link that might be useful: www.wikihow.com/Take-Care-of-Ducklings

Worms, you can buy a small container for 3 bucks at Walmart. Dandelions, Lettuce, Cherries, Tomatoes leaves.... There lots! If you want them to be less scared of you try picking them up and sitting them on your lap for five minutes a day. They will struggle at first and then they will just give up and let you pet them. Ours were raised by hand so we didnt have that problem but we did rescue a duck and she was terrified of us at first and now she is one of the first ones to run to us. She has been with us for a year and we did it by picking her up a lot and hand feeding her lettuce even though it took her along time to eat it from our hands.

I hate to jump in the tail end of a thread, but nobody has mentioned the white neck ring. My Rouens generally get the neck ring after first molt, before the green head or the curl on the tail. I've never had a hen with a neck ring, but that could be the cross breeding, I guess. Still, I'd vote drake. Please let us know how it turns out.

I need help IDing a duck. It was slightly larger than a mallard, had a pink bill with black/brown mottling/ had a black head with a white ring around the eye, a white ring around its neck, a light grey back, its legs seemed to be set further back on its body than the mallard (which leads me to believe it may be a diving duck?) and were a brownish grey color, and its tail was fairly wide and stuck up like a ruddy duck, but it was WAY bigger than a ruddy duck and other than the tail, looked nothing like a ruddy duck. It was the only one of its kind with some local mallards (4-5 drakes in eclipse plumage, 4-5 females, and about 5 or 6 of this year's juveniles), in a slow moving small creek (maybe 20-30 ft across and maybe 3 ft deep at the deepest). Can't figure out what this duck is, maybe a hybrid, a juvenile, or a drake in eclipse plumage, or some combination??? Any help or directions to who (or where) I should go for help would be appreciated!