Friday, May 26, 2006
DUCKLINGS ON THE MOVE
There are a lot of small bodies of water around my area, formed mostly by the need to drain large areas of property such as shopping centers, and developments placed on formerly swampy ground; and with ponds you get waterfowl. Canada geese are the most prominent, but there are various kinds of ducks as well. This time of year, there are lots of goslings and ducklings waddling around. It's a treat to watch them, and I never get enough.
The other night we were waiting in the pick-up window line at Burger King when mama hopped out of the shrubbrey with five in tow. Five really really tiny ducklings. I think they must still have been wearing eggshell on their feathers.
I guess mama was young and inexperienced because she had apparently decided that the grass was greener on the other side of the four lane highway. Down the Burger King driveway she marched her brood. Slowly. The newly hatched are not yet swift. Out into the street she went with five behind. Across the first lane without looking right or left at dinnertime on a Saturday. I looked for her and saw she had a gap in the traffic that just could be enough if she'd speed them up a little. Across the second lane and the third she took them. She had little time left to cross the fourth, and she was clearly too small and too drab to be noticed by the guy behind the wheel of the car that was getting closer. Duck and driver were in a race that looked like it would end badly, but at the last minute she got them over the curb and into the grass on the other side.
I hope for the sake of the kids that it turned out to be not worth the trip!
