Every spring we are visited by a lovely female mallard who is insistent upon building a nest in one of our flower gardens. We assume this is the same lady who waddled her way from our pond to our yard last spring. Since they pretty much all look the same it could be an offspring from the brood of a previous year…hard to say, really not sure. We’ve hosted as many as 10 babies out of 12 original eggs that were laid. Anyway, the hen always comes back to the same place where a new nest is made. This season there were only three eggs. But as always, magically, one morning when we step outside there in the pool little ducklings reside. The nest rests in the flowers located in a bed a half a foot above the surface of the water. Once the eggs are hatched the mom hops in and the babies follow. She swims to and fro with the tiny fuzzy balls of fluff doing their best to keep up. She’s teaching them to swim so it would appear to a casual human observer. And she does so with never ending patience and fervor. Then she presents “the real challenge!” She leaps up out of the water. Frantically the ducklings scramble below her in an attempt to scale the sloped walls, but they get nowhere. She softly quacks beckoning them to follow her lead. They fail even after numerous attempts to accomplish this deed. Mama tolerantly continues to summon trying to educate her clueless younguns. Finally one of the little darlings takes a leap of faith after a deep breath. With a thump it lands awkwardly beside her on the pool deck. While speaking in duckeeze she has some luck luring this duckling away from the rest. It follows. She turns back to encourage the other 2 to join them. At this point duckling #1 scampers behind her and plops back in the water. (Kids will be kids!) After countless tries all 3 baby ducks are at long last beside her on dry land…Whew! With all her ducks in a row, the tiny family makes its way down to the pond.
It just so happened that our three grandkids were visiting the following day and hanging out on the back porch. You could hear their squeals of excitement and delight…I knew the reason, the ducks had to be the source. Without even going outside it was obvious to me what that was all about. Mama Mallard and the triplets had made a journey back to the pool, no doubt. (I guess they needed more swimming lessons! Go figure.) Of course, the grandchildren could hardly be restrained from running down to the pool to capture a duckling or two. Much to their dismay, they were confined to the porch and had to watch the duckies be further schooled from way too far away.
Now for some very sad news: by the next day when Mama Mallard showed up poolside there were only 2 babies in tow. A huge snapping turtle from the pond had grabbed one of the ducklings by the feet, pulled it down under and had it to eat. (We know this because we have seen it happen so many times before.) And the day after that, well, then there was one. And the next day, then there were none. But Mother Nature is an incredible force. It wasn’t but two days later that unlucky lady ducky came back to her nest and laid three more eggs. And when I checked the next day there were three more! However, before the week was out she’d been robbed of two of the six! One was near the nest and a big mess…all broken open and no insides were left. Another egg was an amazing distance away from its home way up in our yard. I spied it and waited until Mama wasn’t on guard. Putting it back took a long time until I was sure that out of the nest the mama had climbed. That dutiful duck deserves an award for being a great mom! She’s a single parent who does it all. She seldom gets off that nest. And when she does, it’s only for a very short while at best.
At this writing 7 eggs all intact, all unhatched, remain in her nest.
I’ll wait ‘til next month to let you know if there turns out to be more or less.
And at that time a turtle saga I’ll also share. If only it had stayed far away I wouldn’t have cared!
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