Our Church building (which is also for those who don't know, where I work) is a haven for mama ducks wanting to lay their eggs. Usually, they lay them in this old solarium by Fellowship Central, and then Jay has to collect them and take them out to the pond and wait for the mama duck to find them (which thankfully she always does).
This year, one of the mallard ducks got smart and layed her eggs in the bushes by the building. Her eggs hatch just recently, but today when Jay was doing work outside, he found that one of the babies had been left behind. The poor thing has a bad leg and it can't walk, so when the mama made the trek with the rest of her family to the pond, this one got left behind (really makes me sad just thinking about it).
So as ususal, Jay to the rescue. After bringing it in so we all could see it (it is sooo cute), he headed out to the pond to hopefully locate the mother and the rest of her babies and reunite this baby duck with the rest of it's family. Most likely, it can swim, just can't walk yet. And for those of you who are mean spirited and feel the need to tell me that it probably won't survive... don't even think about it. It already makes me sad that it got left behind and I don't want to think about it getting left behind again. Hmm...might just have to be the subject for the children's book I've been wanting to write.
P.S. Sorry no pictures, I didn't think to take one till after Jay left for the pond.
UPDATE: Oh this makes me MAAAAAAD! The baby duck wasn't left behind because it had a birth defect, it had been ran over!!! Jay found 7 flat baby ducks in our parking lot a little while ago. This poor baby duck was the only survivor. It's already irritating that we have to dodge OC students using our parking lot as a road all the time, but now knowing that one of them was cruel enough to run down 7 baby ducks...just makes me mad!!!
2 days ago
1 comment:
I am so sorry to hear about the baby ducks being run over. It made me mad too. I still am - I don`t know what I`d do if I find this guy in front of me!!
I live in an apartment complex and from my window I had a view of a duck always sitting on the eggs. Last night they hatched and I went down to the pond and all they were - 12 of them... swimming with their mom. I was on the look out for them as to reach the pond, they have to cross the street which is not very busy but still cars do pass occasionally since there are lots of apartments, but luckily they made it. I went to look in her nest just in case, there were 3 eggs left.. so i decided to take them home and heat them up with the hot water bottle. I don`t know if they will hatch or not but I will just give it a try. I will let you know if they hatch. you have a good day and hope that the duck did survive - maybe you can take him to a vet where he can do something for the baby`s legs. Just a suggestion.
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