Tag: mother duck

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Ducklings Attacked: A World of Survival

A lonely duck swimming by itself in a foggy lake.

This evening when the sun started to set, my mother and I came upon a mother duck and her two ducklings. Where I live, it’s common to find ducks, ducklings, rabbits, squirrels, and lizards. Anyways, I have an affinity to ducklings after rescuing them a couple of years back with my family (check out the post HERE) so I pay close attention whenever I encounter them. And watching them, I found it odd to see that there were only two ducklings trailing behind their mother.

I also spotted a great white bird resembling a heron lurking nearby.

A heron-like bird flying above water.
Something like this bird, but the legs were leaner and the beak yellowish. And it had a much slender, meaner face. Photo by Bob Brewer.

Perhaps it was a heron. But I can’t tell as I am no expert on birds). And from the look of it and from my past memory of witnessing a cruel Canadian goose murder a duckling in another pond, I had this premonition of imminent danger for the little ducklings.

Ducklings Attacked

My fears were realized when the heron-like bird closed in on the two ducklings bobbing around. The mother duck fluttered its wings in protest or perhaps to make itself look bigger to scare off the predator. The details of their interaction I could not understand; but I could tell clearly who were the prey and who was the predator.

Now, one might say it isn’t right to interfere with the world of nature, as animals eating and getting eaten is the way of nature.

But from my understanding, human interference is also part of nature, as humans are part of the ecosystem as well.

And it just didn’t seem right to do nothing while the mother duck and her ducklings got attacked by the mean-looking heron that was inching closer and closer.

So I yelled at the thing and chased after it when it got too close to the scared ducklings. But the heron wouldn’t fly away from the pond: no matter how much I ran and yelled at it, it would dart away or fly a little bit only to come back to the pond. It wasn’t going anywhere. It wasn’t giving up on what it set its eyes on.

I did all I could to condemn the heron, running at it to scare it off.

But the sun sank lower and lower behind the horizon and I had to go. I had to leave the mother duck and her two ducklings hovering in a corner of the pond with the heron still in their vicinity. What became of them, I don’t know. But I have a terrible feeling that the heron got its way.

World of Survival

As I sit here writing, I cannot help but think how ruthless the world is.

In this world, there is no mercy for the little ducklings or any other preys that are at the wrong place at the wrong time. No matter how little or young they are. There is no mercy for little baby animals who meet weak parents or incompetent, foolish parents who lead them to dangerous places (e.g. drainage ditches, areas of lakes where there are hostile, cruel geese & etc.). Same goes for people. If one fails to develop necessary skills for survival and/or success, it’s a tough, tough world out there. (And instead of predators like herons, we have conmen, cheaters, criminals, immoral beings and many more that make life much more difficult than it already is). Plus, there is no mercy for actions as well as inactions: there are consequences no matter what. Our world, like the world of animals, is a world of predators and prey.

It is a world of survival.

lonely mother duck
Photo by Kendal.

Update #1: I’ve revisited the pond a few days later. To my grief, I only found a single duck like the image shown above. (The duck shown above is NOT the duck I saw). I have no way to tell, but by the look and timing of it, the lonely duck that I saw about two days after the said event seemed like the mother duck. It was floating in the exact pond where the horrible event probably took place. The female duck was motionless. A couple of days later, I saw it start to move a little. Now, it is no longer at the pond. It was heartbreaking.

Update #2: Today on October 7th, I spotted the heron-like creature again! It may be the same heron that attacked the ducklings. It may not be. But the bird looks very similar to the one I saw attacking the ducklings:

Video of the heron that looks very similar to the one that attacked the ducklings.
I think it’s hunting for small fish.

P.S. Here is a 2002 journal article that explores the very topic of interfering with nature: “Why Not Interfere with Nature?” by Mark A. Michael. I wish I were in school again to read the full article!

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Ducklings Rescued: From Scared & Lost to Safe & Found

When I had left for class yesterday, my parents had texted me a photo of a mother duck and her ducklings.

“They’re in front of our house right now. There’re 10 of them!”

My parents had notified me before going out.

“If they’re still there when you get home, why don’t you give them some veggies?” My mother had texted.

This was the actual photo my mom texted me that afternoon.

Thrilled to see the family of ducks, I went straight home after class. But when I arrived, there were no signs of ducks. Disappointed, I went inside and worked on my assignments, thinking that maybe some other time I’ll get to see them.

Then I heard loud quacks.

Excited, I dashed outside with a bag of romaine. To my surprise, there was only the mother duck. She quacked and waddled in the parking lot in front of my house. When I tried to give her romaine, she came close for a moment only to waddle away instantly.

Puzzled at the absence of her 10 ducklings and at her odd behavior, I went back inside. Perhaps the ducklings were safe in their home somewhere and the mother duck was checking out the neighborhood. But the mother duck began to quack again at about 8 o’clock in the evening, which made me and my mom go outside to see what the matter was.

When we went close to the mother duck to see what was going on, she scurried away only to waddle back close again. Unable to see what the matter was, we went back inside.

It wasn’t until this morning at around 6:50 that I was able to see what was really going on.

When I woke up this morning, I heard the mother duck quacking again. Maybe this time she’ll want some food, I thought, and with the bag of romaine, I rushed outside to see the mother duck alone by the parking lot. But then again, when I threw pieces of romaine on the floor close to the mother duck, she waddled away. And came back.

However, this time, I noticed that the mother duck was lingering by an opening that leads to the storm drain.

Then, I realized that loud chirping sounds were coming from under it.

Before, I had thought that the chirping noises were coming from nearby bushes. Mixed with the chirps of other birds, I had not realized the chirps of the baby ducklings coming from the drain!!!

The storm drain that the ducklings fell into.

Now I saw that the mother duck was waddling around the parking lot because she was anxious, worried, and desperate to save her ducklings that had fallen in the drain. She had been quacking for help. When I came with a bag of romaine, she had come close then waddled away, because she did not want food – she wanted help!

Ascertaining with my mother that the high-pitched chirps were coming from down under, I called the Animal Services Unit of the police department, which luckily was open at 7 A.M.

While waiting for the Animal Services Unit, my mother and I stood with the anxious mother duck next to us. My mother said to her: “You poor thing. They’re coming to get your babies out. Wait a little bit longer.”

When my mom had gone back inside to cook breakfast, I stood alone with the mother duck. She had waddled to and fro in the parking lot and around the drain all day and night. The poor thing had been quacking to alert and ask for help since yesterday afternoon. I had been so blind!

Suddenly, the mother duck paused and stared at me, or in my direction. And after a short silence, she fluttered her wings and flew above me as I dodged. She flew far, far away and disappeared.

I had thought at that moment, “She must have went out to get more help. She’ll come back.”

But even after someone from the Animal Services Unit came and rescued the little baby ducklings (there were actually 11!) from the wet, cold storm drain, she did not come back.

Animal Services rescuing the baby ducks stuck in the catch basin.
Animal Services brings out the ducklings trapped in the drain with a long net.
Ducklings rescued with a net.

The rescuer told me that he could not wait longer for mother duck to come back: he needed to take the baby ducklings (who were rescued and huddling inside a white container) to a wildlife rescue center located in Huntington Beach, CA.

At first, I asked the man to wait a bit longer for their mother. She was here less than half an hour ago; she was sure to come back, I pleaded. But as minutes passed and there were no signs of her, I finally agreed with the rescuer that it would be best for the ducklings to go, as they were hungry, weak, and tired from the long, cold night they had to endure.

Eleven baby ducklings rescued!

The man from the Animal Services Unit left with the 11 little ducklings to Huntington Beach. The mother duck did not come back.

I don’t know what the mother duck was thinking about when she flew away. I will never know. But maybe after successfully letting someone know about her poor babies stuck in the drain, she had felt that she did all she could. Perhaps she was content knowing that her ducklings would be rescued. Maybe she was watching us humans rescue her ducklings from a distance.

I will never know.

P.S. I encountered another mother duck and her ducklings at a park. But this time, I could not rescue them… 😔

Click HERE for the full story.