Yeah, that can be a bit annoying. At least you can shoo them away with good conscience when they're not actually nesting in your backyard.
Once "my" ones had picked our pool to build a nest and actually started laying an egg a day, I didn't have the heart to mess around with them.
One of my temporary residents is a single mum, and she hardly makes a mess. She first came two years ago (established herself while we were on holidays) at the end of winter. Came back for a second clutch in spring, ducklings hatched two days after Christmas. We were at home and enjoyed watching them swimming in the pool and learning how to use the ramp I installed for them. Christmas is when summer really starts here, so that wasn't too bad.
She returned last year at about the same time. Towards the end of her brooding another couple moved in. Took me a while to realise that this was not just dad finally showing up and doing laps with mum, but a whole new couple. I couldn't really shoo them away without risking to mess with mum #1, so they eventually got comfortable.
Mum #1 wasn't happy to have intruders when her kids were about to hatch. Fighting ducks are an impressive sight. We were on holidays again when they hatched. We saw them jumping into the pool early in the morning on the security camera, they hung around for a few hours, then disappeared.
By the time we got back from holidays, mum #2 had already started laying eggs. And her hubby was a stay at home dad. It was very cute to watch how he hung around in and next to the pool, waiting for mum to come out twice a day for a couple of laps and a short flight. But boy, did he leave a mess in the pool. My suction cleaner ran pretty much full time, vacuuming through a skimmer sock. According to my security camera, the ducklings jumped into the pool one morning, about half an hour after I left for work, and were gone by the time I was back home.
A few weeks later, mum #1 returned, she must have lost all of her ducklings to go that soon for a second clutch. This time they appeared one afternoon still before Christmas, stayed over night and then left for good later the next morning.
Then we had the pool for ourselves for the rest of summer. Late summer, another couple landed in the pool (different breed). Heard them twice early in the morning landing on the roof and flying into the pool from there. Wasn't interested in new tenants and shooed them away, and they didn't return after the second "discouragement".
I assume that mums #1 and #2 will return this year...