Wednesday, May 09, 2007

A Dozen Ducklings!

And this story, as far as I know, has a happy ending!

All the while the goose in our courtyard at work was incubating her eggs, there was another, better hidden mom doing the same about a hundred feet away, camouflaged from above by the nearly bare branches of the tree under which she built her nest. This mom was a duck, and she laid twelve eggs. Although she waited patiently and watched all the strutting and guarding the gander provided his mate, the duck had no drake hanging around to protect her. She just sat there, almost unnoticed. Until, a few days after the geese took their leave of the area, every single one of her eggs hatched out. And they all appeared to be hale and hearty, even though they were itsy-bitsy balls of down.

They put on quite a show, promenading around the periphery of the courtyard, right under everyone's windows. Unlike the goslings and their parents, who kept their distance from their audience, the ducklings were as fascinated by the people watching them as those observers were of the ducklings. The little tykes clustered near the glass doors that lead out to the courtyard, checking out the cluster of humans on the other side of the glass.



By the time these guys hatched out, the fountain in the courtyard was filled and flowing. Alas! the wall around it was too high for the teensy guys to breach! So Briana and Tom from the Science department gathered some stray parts from the activity kits and built them a colorful, duckling-friendly swimming pool, complete with access ramp.



Through all of this, mom watched calmly and attentively.

The ducklings were so tiny that we thought for certain that they would stick around a little longer than the geese did, but sure enough--two days after they hatched, as many of us were having lunch in the company cafeteria, someone called out, "There are the ducks!"

And many of us rose from our lunches and watched as the duck hurried along in front of her dozen ducklings, leading them off to the shelter of a nearby streambank. They were moving so fast that their little feet and legs were practically invisible--like something out of a cartoon.

Our local waterfoul nursery is empty now for the season. Maybe next year we'll get as good a show!

(Photos, again, courtesy of Susan Gavin)

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