Monday, July 6, 2009

Final Duck Update

Lucy and one of her youngsters strolling the courtyard.

It has been quite a saga with the duck families in the courtyard at work. See previous posts here, here and here.

Ethel and nine of her eleven ducklings were quickly relocated to the pond on campus to make room for Lucy and her eight babies. Two of Ethel's babies were adopted by Lucy, but died. Another three of Lucy's babies also died, leaving just five ducklings who soon grew into quacking, eating and swimming machines!

While I was on vacation, the Maintenance Department decided that the fountain was getting too polluted. One of the ducklings had already flown off on it's own and the ducks were getting too used to human company. It was time to relocate the rest of the family into the wild.

Catching the larger ducklings was easier than catching the tiny balls of fluff that so eluded us in the first relocation.

Ken, our Director of Plant Operations, with one of the youngsters looking longingly towards the ground.

Craig releases the family into the pond on the campus - their new home.

Swimming off into the sunset......bye, ducks!
I'll miss those little fluff-balls. It sure was fun watching and learning from them.

4 comments:

Susan Gets Native said...

Awww...bye bye ducks!

Kathie Brown said...

Hurray for the ducks and the people who kept them safe until they had grown big enough to fly off on their own!

dguzman said...

They grow up so fast!

jalynn01 said...

wildlife is so much fun! good to see ya again...hope you're doing fine.