Wildlife
| Here you see a Mallard duck with her babies. We have several sets of wild mallard ducks that choose to fly into Gainsborough to hatch their young every single year. From our wildlife to our homeowners… Gainsborough is a nice safe place to NEST. |
| This is one of our Mandarin ducks. These ducks are not native to Oregon, although an Oregon duck breeder did raise them. We LOVED the colors and marking of these ducks and decided to purchase a pair of them and “set them free” on our waterway. Our Mandarin ducks are some of the homeowners favorites. They have learned well from their Mallard duck friends and now fly in and out of Gainsborough as they please. They enjoy the “good life” at Gainsborough and you can too! |
| After these newborn baby ducklings hatched in a homeowner’s backyard with no mother to be found, I took them home to my daughter Kaila and her best friend Justin to raise until they were old enough to release back into our waterway. The teens instantly took the ducklings. They made them a home and named them Brutus & Crackers. The ducklings looked at the kids like their parents and would quack anytime they wanted anything and the kids would come running. The kids taught them well and spoiled them with a lot of fresh water, crushed cracked corn and plenty of playtime. Above you will see how comfortable the baby ducklings are in their hands. OH, they grow up too fast. The kids and the ducks! Come get Comfortable… at Gainsborough! |
| In December 2010, one of our homeowners, Dick Place, took these photos of this white duck with a green head in our waterway. We are not sure what type of duck it is! If you have any idea, please call 800-689-1390 and let us know. If we find out the breed of duck it is, we will update our website right away. It was just a few days before Christmas so maybe the duck just borrowed Santa’s Beard. If you’re swimming alone… Come join the fun at Gainsborough! |
| Hey mom… You can’t hide that easy! Here is another set of Mallard babies. Isn’t it great to play peek-a-boo with the ducks! Don’t worry once you bring food instead of a camera… They ALL come out to play! |
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WOW… Look at this duck!
He may not seem familiar to you or anyone
from America. He flew here from Siberia!
One of our homeowners, Ray Holmberg, noticed him along our waterway and watched him for days. He could not find any ducks that looked like him in his “bird book” and decided to call upon a friend in the Birding community. He sent photos out on the web and WOW did he get a response. Pretty soon there were birders flying here from all over the country, just to see this special duck. He is a wild duck and flies in and out of Gainsborough. We hope our new friend will visit us on an annual basis. Come live at Gainsborough for a chance to see this unusual Siberian Falcated duck! |
| This is our Red-tailed Hawk. This is one big hawk! This is his territory so he chases off all the other hawks. He loves to go fishing and he is the BEST fisherman we have! Here he is seen watching our homeowners Tom & Mary Koebrich BBQ in their backyard. Normally he just watches and seems to be as interested in you as you are in him. He has however, been known to steal a chicken leg right off the barbeque, so watch your food or be kind and share a snack with our amazing friend! Every community needs one bad bird… and this guy is ours! |
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I love this photo.
It is hard to see in this photo however
if you look close you will see one of our
“Blonde” baby Mallard ducklings.
This duckling is so cute & a much lighter color than a regular mallard duck. Yes, she is blonde, although I am proud to say… she grew up to be a great mother & guarded her flock very well. She is not the “dumb blonde” we thought she might grow up to be. See even nature can make a smart blonde! Be smart and buy your home at Gainsborough! |
| Here nature was not so kind and a mother duck did not return to her nest. One of our homeowners noticed the eggs and asked me for help. I took the eggs home to my daughter, Kaila Rosenburg, and we made a incubator out of a small fish tank and to our surprise… all three ducks hatched out of the eggs on Mother’s Day. My daughter was amazed as she saw the first egg crack. It took them quite a while to hatch out of their eggs and my daughter took great care of them until they were old enough to release back into Gainsborough’s Waterway. On the left the ducks were a few days old and on the right, Kaila is releasing them into our waterway. WAY TO GO KAILA! Come be a humanitarian… with us at Gainsborough! |
| On the right is one of our many Wood Ducks, we call him Woody! He was our first Wood Duck to call Gainsborough “Home”. He never seems to find the need to leave our community. He found a friend in a female Mallard duck and before long they were inseparable, they were always seen together and then… |
| …It must have been LOVE because soon we found Woody and the Female Mallard with their own little surprise! Wonder what this half wood duck & half mallard duck will look like? We will soon find out and secretly… we hope he looks like his daddy! Woody and his family are very happy here! Come find your happiness… at Gainsborough! |
| Here you can see our homeowner, Meredith Loudon, feeding our goose! Meredith lives on our waterway and has trained the ducks and geese to eat right out of her hand! Come join Meredith and hand feed native wildlife right here in your own backyard, only at Gainsborough! |
| You know the goose that Meredith was feeding in the above photo. Well… here is his story! He was born at Gainsborough and when he was very young, unfortunately his wing was injured. When our construction crew came into work, the baby goose was in the field with a broken wing that was sticking straight up in the air. Knowing he could not survive that way, one of our construction workers (Don) chased him around until he ‘wore the little guy out’ and eventually caught him. What a sight that was to see, the goose out ran Don for quite a while. Once he was caught, we had his wing re-set at a local vet and it healed nicely, although he has never been able to migrate with the rest of his Geese friends. He has had feathered friends fly in and out but mainly only has our homeowners for companionship! |
| A wild female Canadian Goose flew into Gainsborough. He started bringing her food and… Our Goose finally had a girlfriend! |
| They hung around each other constantly and soon she began to nesting. You should have seen him protecting her and her eggs. It was the cutest thing, unless you were a duck! If any duck came anywhere close to her nest, he would throw them across the waterway! Soon the ducks and other wildlife learned to never go near his wife or soon-to-be family! He did a fantastic job protecting and feeding his family! When Pat Hoyland would go feed them daily, he would keep all of the other animals away from their food and he would always let her eat FIRST. Letting her eat first… IT MUST BE LOVE! Then when she was all done eating, he would go up and eat whatever food was left. Then if he was still hungry, he would walk back to Pat Hoyland and eat out of her hand or her container. He is not shy at all. |
| We would like to congratulate Mr. & Mrs. Goose on their new family! We hope that everything works out well and at least one little goose stays with daddy during migration time. The baby geese will grow up here and learn their migration path from their mother. Hopefully one will NOT learn or at least come home to visit daddy on the weekends! We wish the Goose Family all the best and will enjoy watching their little ones grow up! |
| After the children were raised and ready to learn to migrate, the mother goose flew away with them to teach them the path! Woody, being a wonderful man, sits and waits for his wife and family to return. We hope to see them flying back here again this year! Come find a community where neighbors become friends, and the fun times never end… Come find Gainsborough! |
| Well… What do you see here? A very special Gainsborough visitor for sure! We have several types of wildlife that stop by to take a drink from our waterway all year long, however this native Oregon deer is a special treat. It is not often we get deer inside of our community so he did not stay long, however, we sure enjoyed watching him while he was here! Good Luck Mr. Deer, you can hide out from the Oregon hunters here at Gainsborough anytime you would like, we’ll keep you safe! Come find a safe place to live inside our gates… Right here at Gainsborough! |
| “Hey these are NO chickens!” Have you seen our new domestic ducks? A couple in Sweethome, Oregon bought some crested chicken eggs to raise and when the eggs hatched the couple noticed two of them were not crested chickens at all… they were Crested DUCKS. They tried to raise them in their chicken coop but felt sorry for them and called us! Now the ducks have a new home and love our waterway. One duck is almost all black and the other is black and white. They have feathers sticking out of the top of their heads (their crests). They make a great addition to our waterway and get along well with their Wild Friends. They even moved out of the way so the wild baby mallard ducks could eat. Awww… Welcome to Gainsborough Feathered Friends! Come to Gainsborough Where neighbors quickly become friends! |
| Here are more of our waterway filled with geese and ducks. Come join our Flock… Come join Gainsborough! |
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