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Shortly before 7 this morning, as I was on my way to work, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cattitude and I took a few minutes to herd ducks.
I'd gotten out a little earlier than usual, so there was time to walk in the park, instead of straight to the train. We went over to see if the goslings were on the lawn by the Columbia boathouse, but were distracted en route.
There was a female duck on the waist-high wall between the path and the bit of sloping greenery next to the river there. That's not a usual place for ducks, and after a moment Cattitude figured it out: her seven ducklings were on the path, and she was trying to convince them to come up and join her.
They were trying, but new-hatched ducklings can't jump, or climb, that high, nor can they fly yet. We slowly and carefully walked along, so that Mama and the babies (and the drake who flew up to join her after a couple of minutes) would walk away from the road, and toward a footbridge where the wall ends and is replaced by a fence that a duckling can easily fit under.
It took a few minutes, and some cheerful conversation with neighbors (one of whom asked if the ducklings were ours), but they got to the bridge. The adults flew down to the water, and quacked (which I think is "follow me!" in duck). It took a moment, but one duckling after another jumped off, and there they all were, duck, drake, and seven ducklings, paddling happily on an inlet off the Hudson River.
cattitude and I took a few minutes to herd ducks.I'd gotten out a little earlier than usual, so there was time to walk in the park, instead of straight to the train. We went over to see if the goslings were on the lawn by the Columbia boathouse, but were distracted en route.
There was a female duck on the waist-high wall between the path and the bit of sloping greenery next to the river there. That's not a usual place for ducks, and after a moment Cattitude figured it out: her seven ducklings were on the path, and she was trying to convince them to come up and join her.
They were trying, but new-hatched ducklings can't jump, or climb, that high, nor can they fly yet. We slowly and carefully walked along, so that Mama and the babies (and the drake who flew up to join her after a couple of minutes) would walk away from the road, and toward a footbridge where the wall ends and is replaced by a fence that a duckling can easily fit under.
It took a few minutes, and some cheerful conversation with neighbors (one of whom asked if the ducklings were ours), but they got to the bridge. The adults flew down to the water, and quacked (which I think is "follow me!" in duck). It took a moment, but one duckling after another jumped off, and there they all were, duck, drake, and seven ducklings, paddling happily on an inlet off the Hudson River.