The duck in question (and a couple of her feathered buddies) adopted my friends Jami and Nancy last year. They just showed up one day at their house and never left. Being the welcoming family that they are, J & N bought the ducks feed and a pool so they could live the good life. They are not penned in or kept in any way other than with love and the feathered ones wisely chose to stay and thrived.
They did what all ducks do and just a few weeks ago look what hatched!
Sweet, downy, absolutely cute as a button, ducklings.
Look at that little one in front resting his head on a handy yellow (brother or sister) pillow.
I was given visitation rights and snuck up to the house today for a gander. The Mum was as super cool and as I was super stealth. Taking the cue from their Mother, the chicks watched me with their beautiful ball bearing eyes. The Mum was taking no chances however and after a while left her clutch for a closer inspection of the disturbance.
I kept quite still as she came about half way between me and her offspring. I knew she was sussing me out and
efficiency, with only a few ducky words she called to her chicks once she deemed it was safe for them to proceed.
Along they toddled at a leisurely pace with no panic or alarm to a safer spot, where no peeping
Tomess could capture their images for her own amusement. I was foiled from any more
paparazzi shots as they tucked tidily under the house and so I departed as abruptly as I had shown up.
My latest sleep pattern is to awake around 5:30am (waaaaaaaaaaay to early) but as I'm all sleeped out, there's nothing to be but get up. The tide was low at 7:00am this morning so a SUP sesh was crossed of the list and replaced happily by a bike ride.
I might have been up early, but as I strapped on my helmet and looked up, it was apparent this person was up much earlier.
"Blimey mate, you might wanna cut back on the sunflower seeds, you're looking mighty porky around the petals" I thought, as I'd peddled barely 2 minutes before dismounting to stop and snap this swollen sunflower. It's a stunning route from Rice Park to the end of Thompson Road that greets you with the incredible smells of eucalyptus trees and doesn't stop feeding the senses, including the sense of humor.......
.....quick, quick, somebody distract him!
Oh deer.
I stopped to feed the horses and was drawn to this one because of his long fringe and one empty socket. It made me think of a scene from The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, which is an extraordinary must see movie.
As I was in the neighborhood. I decided to pop in and see the ducklings and like any good Auntie my first thought was "my, haven't you grown?" .
Goodness gracious me.........having freckles I can relate to this one. And now for a duck joke: A duck walks into his local 7-11 and says "give me some chap stick and put it on my bill"!
My end.
