Migrating waterfowl visiting Californias Central Valley for the fall and winter find a vastly different landscape than their ancestors hundreds of years ago. Almost 95 percent of Californias historic wetlands have been developed the Valley is now one of the most fertile agriculture hubs in the world providing food around the globe and powering the states economy.

But waterfowl make up a determined group of species and have adapted to find habitat in places one might not normally imagine, with some help from people. For example, winter-flooded rice fields in the Sacramento Valley act as surrogate wetlands, providing thousands of acres of shelter and food to sustain migrating waterfowl before they journey back north to the breeding grounds.

Sometimes waterfowl can even discover more intimate digs like a backyard swimming area.

When two mallards began hanging around the pool area of Ken and Sydney Cooleys home in Rancho Cordova in March, not far from Ducks Unlimiteds Western Region Office, the couple figured something was up.

Almost every year we get a visit from a random male mallard in our backyard, sometimes accompanied by a female, said Sydney. So, it wasnt out of the ordinary. But it was Ken who one night saw the female go into our ground cover and we realized there was a nest there.

The couple decided to give the burgeoning family space and a few weeks later 14 ducklings popped out the Cooleys suddenly had 16 mallards living in their backyard. Sydney and Ken did their own research and decided to provide the family a safe space to grow, even building an island in the middle of their pool out of metal sawhorses to provide refuge for the ducklings.

As an added bonus, the Cooleys have been posting videos and pictures of the mallard family on Facebook and have cultivated quite a following a nice outlet during Californias current state-wide shelter-in-place order.

WATCH VIDEO OF THE COOLEY MALLARDS.

People have really enjoyed it, added Sydney. Every day the ducklings are learning new things and we get to watch them and Ken tries to get it on video or pictures. So we have been having fun and its a great thing to do during quarantine.

Ken is one of the founders and a past mayor of the city of Rancho Cordova, as well as a current California State Assemblyman for southeast Sacramento County, and believes that its one of his duties as a leader to highlight the importance of habitat like wetlands in the area. He has been using the opportunity to educate the public via social media on the importance of habitat conservation for wildlife like mallards.

A very basic civic goal of mine is to actually work across my constituency to show the spectacular beauty of our area and to have people be supportive of maintaining outstanding habitat, Ken said. So while Im using the occasion of quarantine to talk about places to go, there is also the civic work to make people realize that great beauty that abounds only a short distance away.

His voting record is pretty impressive for our world in wetlands conservation, says Gary Link, Ducks Unlimiteds director of public policy for the western region. Science Magazine did a report last year on all the bird species that are in decline. There was only one species that has seen an increase since 1970 and thats waterfowl. And thats because of people like Ken and Sydney and organizations like Ducks Unlimited.

The Cooleys believe the Mallard Family has about one more week left before the ducks look to leave their backyard and head 2,400 feet to the American River, officially ending the Cooley Mallard Naturama, as Ken refers to it.

We will miss them, said Sydney, But its been a great experience.

To follow along with the Cooleys Mallard Family, visit Kens Facebook page.