7 Ducklings

We had quite the surprise yesterday afternoon. Sitting on our deck (which is currently under major construction, so we were crowded with the grill into one 4x4 area, not important to the story, but true nonetheless). We heard commotion in our landscaping neighbor's (LN) yard. Max, the old golden retriever was barking, and there was incessant duck quacking. E and I decided that LN had disturbed a duck nest while repairing his siding.

A few moments later, LN yelled "Max, no! Leave that duck alone!" and the duck flew into the yard adjacent ours, where Family Without Social Graces (FWSG) lives. They may be a topic of a future post... Anyways, we were keeping our eye on her while Gladys went to the other side of the yard in search of some water. E went to help her (i.e. turn on the hose) and then was shocked as 7 little chirping ducklings were about 4 feet from her. She grabbed Gladys just before she saw them. Perhaps I hsould mention that we have a 6' privacy fence on top of a 5' chain link fence surrounding our yard. No idea how they got in! (Although, plenty of bunnies find their way in as well, so....)

Those poor babies were separated from their mother who was quacking up a storm calling to her ducklings. They were trying to follow her sound, but were perplexed by how to get back out of the yard. They found a hole in the fence in another corner, but only two of the seven went through. The other five stayed in our yard. So, as E held Gladys, I corralled them back to the corner and basically scared the crap out of them, while they clamored to escape through the fence.

Since the five ducklings landed in their window well, the neighbors in the yellow house came outside as well. Good thing too! They found the other two ducklings in the street. 30+ minutes after it all began, the quacking died down as the mama led her ducklings back to the lake. (We live about 4 blocks from it.) AND we had an impromptu neighborhood block party.

I love happy endings.