Quack, Quack, Waddle, Waddle

About a month ago, we discovered a nest of three or four duck eggs in our flowerbed against the back of our house. A few days later, a larger nest of 8 or so eggs appeared under the climbing wall of Helen Grace’s swing set. And then, a week or so later, all of the eggs were missing from the swing set nest and 11 eggs were in the nest in the flowerbed. While we have no idea how the mama duck moved the eggs, our Google search found one result that said that ducks can in fact move eggs from one nest to another by tucking the eggs underneath them and flying. So we watched the flowerbed nest intently and often saw the mommy come sit on her eggs. We waited and waited and waited….and finally, about a month into our wait, we were all sitting in the den one morning before work. John was sitting closest to the window and the flowerbed, and all of a sudden, he asked me to mute the tv. Sure enough, we heard some quacking! We jumped up just in time to see the line of six freshly hatched baby duckies hop out of the flowerbed and follow their mama across the backyard and to the lake’s edge. They were so fresh that they were falling and tripping over themselves. They haven’t returned to the nest, but we do see the cute little family swimming around the lake from time to time. What an amazing experience to witness!

All the ladies in the neighborhood coming to check on the nest…would you consider this a pre-hatch sip and see? Their first walk Only six eggs hatched