Yesterday I ran some errands after 6 pm when it was a bit cooler and the weekend traffic out to Isle of Palms had slowed down.
As I came home and turned right onto my street, a young looking female mallard duck was in the middle of the road. I couldn’t see if she had moved away from the car, so I stopped and got out.
Mommy duck had five babies hidden in the grasses on the island. Here I talk to her in what is my “pet” voice–which is way too highly pitched, LOL.
I called my neighbor, and she and I helped the mommy duck to safely walk her babies to the water in our neighborhood’s front ponds. From experience, I know that’s what ducks do. They nest away from water, and when the babies can do it, the mother “walks them to water.”
This task took both me and my neighbor and the mommy duck. The babies were newly hatched and weak, and it was so, so hot. The mommy duck led the parade and kept to places she could hide the babies until we helped her move them along–past front porches and fences and up to the pond.
My neighbor checked this morning, and the duck and her babies are all still in the front pond. So I walked up to take some pictures.
Nope they aren’t in the big pond where she went first yesterday.
Here they are–in the quiet part of this pond away from the fountain–and near the woods. It’s a much better spot for her and her family. At some point she crossed the street with them.
This little family will be very fragile for some time. There are so many predators around then: a passing alligator or river otter, a hawk or owl, and so forth.
We will see. But my neighbor and I did what we could.
PS: And on Friday, when I left Costco, a mother goose was crossing a very busy road with 9 half-grown little ones following her in a straight line. That area is too busy for me to have gotten a video.
Louisa Enright's Blog 
Thank you for caring, Louisa!❤️LeighSent from my iPhone
Our twin grandsonsxare now 28. When they were about 7 one of them was given a catapult for Christmas from his godfather. We live rurally and Finn took it out to the stony driveway and aimed high. A wild duck landed almost at his feet and looked at him as if to say don’t you dare! It stayed near the houses and settled into the chicken coop. We called him Moby Duck. I had a plastic clam shell that we used for a pond for him and put a couple of bricks as steps to help him get in. He brought a mate home and they had ducklings. There is a natural creek on our boundary and every day mama would waddle through the orchard with her babies and come home with fewer babies. The eels pull them underwater by their paddling feet. One night we were all in our small granny flat chewing the fat when there was a loud quack from behind Norm’s chair and there was Moby Duck joining in the conversation! We enticed him out with a trail of oat flakes after which I washed the floor clean of droppings. Every year since then we have had ducks fly in to nest and raise their babies. This year there are two pairs in the now Duck run. Our son inlaw built a pond and they live UT. Finn now lives with his wife and 7 month old daughter in a flat attached to the old packing shed and his wife has been given 6 runner ducks. She said the wild ducks are more friendly than her runners and are waiting every morning for their share of the food! None have come in for a chat though! Hawks, rats and stats are a huge worry for us with the ducklings but nature has its way with them I hope the lucky survivors continue to come here to nest! It is magical.
Bonnie, I love this story so much. Thanks so much for sharing it.