The ducklings arrived on May 23rd and left their nest to venture out into the world on the 24th. All that is left is a nest of fluff and broken eggshells. We counted ten eggs, so there should be ten ducklings.
Not long ago, this was the scene when Missy left the nest – one pile of eggs. In case you haven’t followed the story, you can here.
We checked the nest several times a day, hoping to see some chicks but we never saw any. On Wednesday morning we saw Missy going nuts in the yard, but she does that sometimes, so we didn’t think much of it. Next a police car pulled up and stopped in front of our house. Mom immediately thought she was in trouble for something, but that was not the case.
The kids bus stop is right by a storm sewer drain out in front of our house. The parents noticed Missy going absolutely crazy and they heard ducklings. Unfortunately, the little ones didn’t make it more than about fifty feet before they all fell into the storm sewer drain. Our neighbor called the police to get them help. If you count, there are only eight sitting there.
Since Mom knows the most about how many there are and when they were born, it was helpful. The poor little things kept falling down to the bottom and tried hard to get back up. A second officer came with a net so they could hopefully scoop up the little ones and get them to Missy.
It took quite a while but then the officer managed to get six in one swing. Mom had to take a photo as they are absolutely adorable. She didn’t take many photos because Missy wanted to be alone with her babies and no one wanted to scare her further.
Further working with the net ended up getting two more ducklings out of the storm drain. The problem was that Missy had left with the first six. Evidently, she is not good at counting. Later in the day those two were found in the neighbors salt water pool and they were unable to get out on their own. Another neighbor found one more duckling in a different storm drain and was able to get it out and put it with the other two.
Sadly, nine is the number that have been found and eventually reunited with Missy. We have no idea where number ten could be as the storm drain system is huge and it is probably lost forever. These cuties sure had a terrible start in life, but we hope they found a safer way to get to some water and they will all grow up to be good Mallards.
That my friends is the end of the story of Matt, Missy, and the ducklings – good, bad, and sad. Mother nature can be wonderful but also rather cruel.
We are joining our friends at Living Laughing and Barking in Our Backyard for their Nature Friday blog hop.
Missy has her nine babies with her and we are so happy that the police helped her out! How cute they are!
Wish we had a shot of her with the six but we didn’t want to scare her anymore than she already was. We feel bad for the one who has not been found.
Fingers and paws crossed for Missy and her ducklings as they venture forth! Thanks for sharing their story. We loved it! your friends Lilly and Chester (ps Lilly had an awesome check up! She turns 15 next Thursday!!)
Wow! 15 is huge! We hope she gets to celebrate large with a nice walk and some good birthday treats. Glad she is in good health.
oh how sad… this poor babies… we are glad the police has a big hearts and helped…. all the good luck to the ducks…and to missy
We will never see them again, and if we do, we won’t recognize them but we gave them the best help to get started we could.
Broke me heart! Poor babies
Mom felt really bad and she still feels bad for the one that was never found.
What an adventure those ducklets have already had! Nature has its own way and our human environment isn’t very safe for the wild creatures. You have wonderful and kind people around you that helped Missy collect her babies.
Humans are terrible for wild animals. We just read about a baby bison in Yellowstone that had to be put down because a tourist helped it and the mother refused it after that. So sad.
Quack! Thanks for the share of this story, and the photos … thanks to all who came to the aid of this little family.
Your post title aptly said it all …
Mom had no idea when I was determined to look under the bay window in mid April that there would be a duck nest and it would go on for so long and end in such chaos. For all of us it was a learning experience and we hope ducks find a better location to nest going forward.
Oh no I’m so sorry and yet thankful 9 were found and returned to Missy and Matt.
Hugs Cecilia
It was a real up and down emotional day at our house but the outcome was better than we thought it would be.
Yes, Mother nature can be cruel at times. The best news is that SIX out of 10 made it this far. That is actually better than average. At least you got a couple of pictures. YOU might visit the closest water and see if you can spot them with Missy.
All the ducks look alike, so we won’t ever know them again, but we are glad they got together and hopefully made it to some place safe by the water.
Oh so glad the ducklings made it out ~ thanks to help of good humans ~ sweet photos ~ Xo
Wishing you good health, laughter and love in your days,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)
We feel bad for the missing one, but the rest of them got really lucky.
Oh gosh, what a touching story. We think that Missy and her nine surviving ducklings are most fortunate to live in a neighbourhood with such caring and kind-hearted humans (including the policemen!)
We have lots of animal people around us so that is a good thing. Hopefully the ducklings will do well in their lives.
Oh my goodness, what an adventure those ducklings had! We are glad that most found their way back to Missy.
xoxo,
Rosy and Sunny
It was a stressful day and a half for people, Missy, and the little ones. Hopefully they will have better luck now.
Your mom has such a tender heart, like me. I feel bad for the poor little one that wasn’t found. But I’m very happy for Missy, Matt, and the nine little ones who were found and rescued.
Nature can be cruel and the nine who did survive are quite lucky. Hopefully they will all survive to grow up and be good ducks.
We are very glad that most of them made it. We have ducks and geese here and we’re always worrying about those critters, especially the wee ones.
We have never worried much about the little ones until now. Since human things caused all the issues we kind of felt guilty but are happy most of them got to go with their mom.
I’m glad they are safe with their mama now, and remember sometimes not all the eggs hatch.
The eggs did all hatch because Mom checked the nest but sometimes they don’t all make it and the one may have gotten lost in the storm drain. We will never know.
So happy for the 9 but very sad for #10. Here’s hoping life improves for the Missy and her pack-let.
It can’t get too much worse. We wish them all well wherever they land.
Thanks for telling us the story. There are so many wonderful people out there watching for our feathered friends. Mom was in the big city last week and one of the RCMP had stopped his cruiser and was directing traffic to help a Mother Goose get her 6 goslings across the street to the lake! Purrs Marv
Most people are kind and do care about the safety of things like ducks and geese but there are always those bad people who don’t. We are happy our ducklings got some help and hope they have a good life.