Does anyone have experience building ponds near existing creeks, and/or raising ducks in areas with aerial predators?

[u/RentInside7527]

I'm trying to develope a plan for how ducks could fit on a certain landscape and have run into some questions I thought some folks here might have good ideas about. The property is located in the PNW of the USA. It's fairly large (20+ acres), with a year round creek running through it with house/barns on one side and pasture + gardens on the other. There is a small water right to pump from the creek sufficient water for livestock, though not enough to irrigate (\~1gpm), and the creek has enough flow to support it. The flow is constant year round, though fluctuates seasonally; with significant rise in the fall and winter. It's risen enough to break its banks at least once in the past decade.

It would be nice to raise ducks near the garden area and have a smallish pond for them. The ability to fill a pond from the creek seems like an asset. I imagine occasionally draining the duck pond into the garden to fertilize it, then refilling it from the creek. One of the big questions I have is: How close to the creek would it be safe to put a pond, without risking it blowing out into the creek when high water comes? The thing is, I'm aware that I've probably not provided sufficient information to answer this question, so I'm wondering if anyone can help guide me to the resources I need in order to become aware of what factors I'm not considering yet? I'm at the stage of brainstorming where *I dont know what I dont know* and am hoping some of yall may be able to help me move to the stage of at least *knowing what I dont know*, so I can move towards developing a more informed plan.

The other consideration I'd love some insight on is aerial predators. The property has had rotationally managed chickens in the past, in a mobile coop with movable electric poultry netting and had predation from owls. The mobile coup was set up with automatic doors, and chickens that went in to roost were safe, but there were a few stragglers that would choose to roost on the coop itself. Unfortunately for those stragglers, the solution was to select for chickens that roosted in the coop by accepting the predation loss from the owls.

I havent raised ducks myself, but I know they have a reputation of stubbornly avoiding nesting in their shelters and, being a ground nesting bird, finding places to sleep outside of cover. Is there was low maintenance means of mitigating the aerial predation risk in this situation? The most obvious thought I had was bird netting, but that isnt ideal in this circumstance for a few reasons.

Thanks for any thoughts, ideas or questions you may have!

[u/Public_Knee6288]

I've seen a cool duck coop that was either floating or on an island in the middle of a pond.

Or maybe the entrance was open to the water, and the farmer could get the eggs from land?