3 Minutes in the Lives of 12 Wood Ducklings (and 2 Mothers)

The whole episode I'm going to tell you about actually took slightly less than 3 minutes, but they were exciting minutes!

I'm not sure who was more excited-- the mother Wood Duck or me.  

Let me tell you the story...

It was a beautiful evening on Friday, so I decided to take a walk along the path by the swamp.   The past few days, I'd had a couple of quick sightings of ducklings.  This time, I thought I'd be ready... just in case I happened to see any more.  I carried my camera (and it was turned on and the lens cap was off).  I was prepared.  

I was scanning the water.  Watching the distant water, mostly.  Not expecting a mother Wood Duck and her 12 babies to be feeding right along the bank.  Not expecting her not to hear me approach.  You get the picture.

I got a lot of pictures, too, but the first few didn't turn out very well because I was so excited, I took them with a tree branch between me and the ducks.

The duck family had been peacefully feeding in a little cove along the edge of the swamp.

Mother duck went into immediate emergency mode when she realized I was close by.  The ducklings did, too.  They started swimming away as fast as they could.

They were making bubbles in the water, they were paddling so fast.  But that was nothing compared to the splashing their Mama was making!

She was doing her best to create a distraction - so that whatever danger lurked in the form of the person on the shore, it would go after her and not her babies.  If only she could have known that I was another mother who would certainly never hurt them.  

Indeed, I stood very still (after I moved a couple of steps so the tree branch was no longer in the photos) and tried not to scare her anymore than she already was.

The ducklings quickly made it to a sheltered spot.

 First they all disappeared momentarily behind this clump of grass.

They kept swimming... and for a little while they were out in the open again.

Their next hiding place left a bit to be desired-- I can still see you!

Finally, they seemed to get the idea that they should go back in the thicker, taller grass to hide.  This meant swimming thru the open water again, but just for a little bit.

By this time, the mother Wood Duck had calmed down quite a bit.  All her babies were safe, right?  That's her in the lower left of the next photo, and the babies are at the top right.

There they all were, heading for safety, towards the back of the swamp.  Or were they?  One baby seems to have a mind of his own.

How did the mother know this one was not with the others?  None of them had made a sound (at least since all the splashing had stopped)!

Perhaps, like human mothers, Wood Duck mothers have eyes in the back of their heads? 

All's well that ends well, and this brief encounter between 12 ducklings, their mother, and I, ended just fine.  The stray duckling got the message somehow that he'd better hurry up and join the rest of the family.

Even though he seems to be heading slightly in the wrong direction in this photo, he made it back with the others by taking a turn at the last minute.

Where all the churning water had been only 2 minutes and 40 seconds before (the time elapsed on my photos from the first one of the duck family to the last), was back to peace and tranquility.