* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia
In Las Fotos de los Lectores de La Vanguardia we can see these photographs taken one spring morning at Lake Banyoles, where we can see a whole family of ducklings.
I have been able to count up to seven pups, an amusing picture that I stumbled across by surprise when I was walking around the lake.
They swim and move so fast in the water that it is not an easy task to photograph them all together. It is the mallard, widespread throughout the northern hemisphere.
The females usually lay their eggs in early spring. The laying consists of between eight and thirteen eggs that are incubated for 28 days until hatching.
The chicks are nidifugal, capable of swimming and feeding on their own from day one. At birth they are covered in yellow or brown down.
