I was feeding Quinn lunch and going about our regular routine when all of a sudden I heard some obnoxiously loud chirps. I didn't think much of it until it was becoming annoying. I looked out the window and what did I see?...a mama and her baby ducks!
If any of you know Mike you would know that he would loves these. He would become like a child and get all excited. I had to call him. He immediately came home.
I had cornered two of the baby ducks and picked them up. I knew the mama duck wouldn't go too far without all of her babies. I wanted them to be there when Mike arrived.
I went and got the neighbor kids since I thought they'd like to see them as well. I warned them to not go close to the mama because I was afraid she'd take off. Luckily, they listened to me. Mike was able to see the ducks.
Mike went and got some bread and tried to lure the mama out. It didn't work. She didn't want anything to do with him. She got afraid and did take off (like I thought she would). She ran next door into where two very big mean dogs live. The one saw the duck and thought of it as a play toy. One of the baby ducks immediately died.
Mama came back into our yard but went into our backyard. This time she and her babies got stuck in our window well. We had to rescue them.
Mama duck went into the schoolyard. When each baby was rescued we just put them through the fence where she was.
I thought I would see the last of them forever...
But later on, I heard them chirping and when I looked to where they were; they were trying to cross the road. By this time, the other neighbor girl was over at my place. She felt the need to rescue them. I decided to help. It only took a few minutes to gather them all together.
Well, she had this great idea to try to catch the mama. She wanted to take them to the greenbelt where it would be safer for them. I told her she could use my backyard (since her backyard had the two mean dogs). She spent almost all afternoon catching her.
Here's the pen that we made for the baby ducks. The mama kept coming into our yard but didn't come close to the pen. Finally, she gave up and we decided to put them in some bushes over at the front of the school. We decided this because apparently this is where they usually live. Mama duck somehow disappeared. We had hoped that she would find her babies like she did before.
We thought they were all safe at the schoolyard but one little girl riding her bike came upon them. I don't know the full story here but somehow only one was to be found. We didn't really know what to do with this baby duck so we asked neighbors if they wanted to adopt it. We called Cal-Ranch and Peaches but there were no takers.
I was surprised that Mike wasn't willing to adopt the duck. He's always wanted one. When we were living in Rigby, he took a duck from the duck pond and "borrowed" him for 2 weeks. At the time, I wasn't happy about it. Now, when I think about it, it just makes me smile. It's Mike. He just kept saying that he doesn't have the time to take care of a duck because they are a lot of work. He reminded me how he has to go to work, has a kid, and a wife, etc., etc., etc.
But...He did decide to buy some feed. He thought it would help with finding it a home. Nevertheless, when he was rounding the corner, he saw the duckies brothers and sisters crossing the street. They were on the other side of the schoolyard where we had left them previously. By this time, we had quite a few neighbors with us. They helped gather the duckies.
We put them in a box. I was able to call Mike to let him know that the Mama finally decided to show. We didn't need to buy feed. We let them go again in the schoolyard. This time we didn't follow and didn't want to know where they were going. We still don't know where they are. Every now and then we have a few report that they can still hear them.
For some people trying to help; I think that it just made matters worse. They should have been left alone from the start. Oh well, it was a fun day with the duckies.
