Make Way For Ducklings

Thursday Luke called me from work telling about all the fun creatures he was finding in his pools. At one of his pools he found two little ducklings swimming around. There was a third one, but it was sucked into the skimmer basket and died. It was really sad. The other two were swimming around, but Luke noticed that they couldn't get out of the pool. He sent me a picture of them and there looked so cute! I wanted him to bring them home so I could keep them, but he said he was going to check and make sure that they were not the owner's pets. He spoke to the lady who owned the house and she said they were not her pets, and that they have been in the pool for the last few days. Luke called me and I immediately began researching for a wildlife rehabilitation person in the area to tell us what we should do with them. While researching I found a wildlife rescue website and it gave me tons of info on what to do. Ducks are the only birds that can be handle by humans and still be accepted by their momma, and if they are orphaned (which in this case the momma duck could not get them out of the pool, so she left them there) you can put them with other ducks and they will adopt them and take care of them.

I called Luke and told him the info that I found and he decided that he would take them home, not for me to keep :(, but to put in a pond that is in a park near our house. The pond is home to a bagillion ducks...seriously, there are thousands of ducks there. He came home and after showing the cute little guys off to the neighbor kids we went to the park and let them run around to find a momma. At first they stood by Luke's feet, it was so cute!

They did not want to leave Luke. He was their hero!

They did eventually wonder around, but the other ducks pecked them to get them out of the way. It was really sad, but they did not seem to be bothered.

We waited for a while and fed the ducks to see if one of them would help these poor little ducklings, but no luck. I was starting to feel really sad (I think motherly hormones were taking over), I was ready to have Luke go buy a kiddie pool so I could keep them, take care of them, and be their momma. I was just about to talk (beg) Luke to take them home when two boys came over and asked us if we had any more bread. I told them we didn't and talked to them about the ducks when they pointed out the group of ducklings swimming down the pond. I was so excited to see them because they looked exactly like our little ducklings and that meant that there was a momma around! One of the ducklings jumped right into the pond and swam to the group, the other one was not sure what to do and ran the other way. Luke caught him and put him in the water. He swam to the group and then we couldn't tell which one was ours. It was neat to see them fit right in.

Luke went back yesterday to see if they were still ok, and it seemed that they were :) Yay, for being adopted!! Luke is a true hero :)