We interrupt your regularly scheduled program for a special Mother’s Day edition… about ducklings in my backyard.
I considered turning this into a parable about startups*, but then decided to spare us all. So no business content. Just lots of duck photos.
* There are so many options here, like: Don’t Count Your Ducklings Before They Hatch; When All Your Eggs are in One Basket; Expanding To New Markets; It Takes a Village; Here’s to the Crazy Ones; Getting the Team To Fall In Line; It’s Better to be Lucky than Good; etc…
Last month a duck appeared in our yard. This was highly unusual, since we live in the suburbs and never had a duck visit before.
The next day she went up to the roof and did a bunch of quacking. We decided she needed a name, so the branding committee picked “What” as in #whattheduck.
We soon realized she was nesting in our planter box. We left out some food and water, and helped chase away a few predators over the next weeks.
When she occasionally stepped off the nest, we counted ten eggs.
On Saturday we heard peeps and saw that the ducklings hatched!
On Sunday morning (Mother’s Day), they all left the nest…
…and took these acrobatic first steps down the stairs.
She led them around the perimeter of the yard several times.
When it became obvious she wanted to leave, we opened the gate.
We followed her down the street to assist as crossing guards, picking up several neighbors as we went.
When we reached the expressway, it got sketchy. One neighbor was smart to call the (non emergency) police, who came to help.
This officer knew exactly what to do. She helped us collect What the Duck and all ten ducklings for transport to the marsh a mile away.
They were released into the Baylands with thousands of other ducks… and sailed off into the sunset!
Let’s add children’s books author to your resume ❤️
Nice documentation of nature!