MaineCourse

Duck Walk

“Look outside!” Matt yelled.

Matt and Chris had finished mowing our lawn, and had not quite finished arguing about a party they were or were not going to, about dinner they would or would not have with us, when Chris’s cell phone rang. I don’t know why Matt answered it, but he did, and he was hollering from the porch. Susan looked though the kitchen window while Diane and I hurried out and looked up. Hot air balloons? Hawks? Ultra lights? Raining parts of a commercial airliner? I didn’t see a thing.

“What, where, Matt?” I yelled back.

“On the ground.”

And then we looked down. Padding towards us from the backyard near Mary Dill’s house were fourteen baby ducks.

I immediately assumed they came, parentless, from the wetlands behind
Bob and Joy’s house. After a quick call to Karen, Chris’s mom who works for Audubon, I called Joy to tell her we would be herding the flock back to their home, and hopefully to mom and dad duck.

Take the: photo tour

And the short movie:
Mp4 ( 3mb - won't play in older browsers so you may want to download it first).


Drop by in a day or so because this story is not quite finished.

Lovely pictures--heartwarming. Do you remember when we had baby ducks in a pen after Jimmy Schmidt hatched them in an incubator? Peter herded them to the lake when they were big enough and jumped in the lake to show them how to swim. HO

Posted by Helen Miller.

I laughed out loud at the "herding" of the ducks. Ducks are natural followers. Lead and they will follow.

Just ask W.

Posted by ShinyDome.

Hilarious footage! I love Matt's patented, wide, duck-herder walk! And equally hilarious the impromptu (and apparently wildly successful) avian jacuzzi! Would that there were some way to know if your ministrations worked out in the end -- I suppose if there are no signs of 14 fluffy corpses floating about the wetlands, all is well. I'd say significant karma got erased, or upgraded.

Posted by donald.

save the ducks....................

Posted by goose.

ShinyDome is correct, but only if you're a strong leader

Posted by W.

A strong leader like Peter?

Posted by michael.

Posted by Michael at May 31, 2004 11:05 AM