4087 - DUCK!

That's what we found Friday night. A baby duck. Remember the nesting duck I had alongside my house? Well, it was gone. But one of the babies was left behind. It was wandering around the backyard. We brought it inside and put it in a box. My son looked up online on how to care for a baby duck. Lots of information online.

So we got it all set up to spend the night. Maybe the mother will be back at the nest in the AM. .... Nope. The next day there was no sign of the momma duck. I check the pond across the street and did a general check around the neighborhood, nothing.

But we were prepared for the situation. There is a park not far from us with two big ponds and the plan was to take baby duck there and release it. But first I had to call my daughter and see if she wanted to bring my granddaughter Lilly over to see the baby duck.

Of course she does!

The baby duck is in the lower-left corner of the box. It's hard to see because I went out and brought in part of the nest for it to sleep in.

So after Lilly left I took ducky to the park on Saturday. There were hardly any waterfowl around. I almost brought ducky back home. But I found a big patch of reeds to put ducky in so it could hide if it needed to. It took to the water like a ... duck. It started swimming right away and started looking for food. Things were looking good.

I watched it for a little bit then went behind the reeds to see how it would do on it's own. Then I hear this CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP. I step back out where ducky can see me and everything is good again. I waited a little bit and tried it again. CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP. Oh oh, am I going to have to go into the water and get ducky back out to take it home?

Well, the third time was a charm. It seemed to be more concerned about finding food than me. I snuck away.

So Sunday I decided to go back and see if it's still around and doing well. There were geese and ducks everywhere. I'm thinking where were all of you yesterday? So I'm looking around the reeds and come to an open spot. There was a momma duck sitting on the bank. She sees me, gets up, and goes into the water. When she does, so do the 5 ducklings that were underneath her.

4 of the ducklings were a light brown. The fifth one was a little bigger and had a blacker head and black wings, just like the ducky that I let go Saturday. YEAH! Ducky found a family!

Things turned out really well.