- Jan 2, 2011
- 1,363
- 11
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The Lonely Duckling
One of the most appealing things about the townhome we had just rented was the lovely duck pond that opened into a marsh directly behind our home. Half of the duck pond was surrounded by other townhomes. Sure we didn’t have a yard, but we had a small deck that overlooked the duck pond and into the marsh beyond. It didn’t matter what season it was, there was always beautiful and amazing wildlife to be seen. But our favorite season was when all the ducks came and soon had little ducklings. Everyday more and more ducks would come out with new hatchlings. We started to recognize all the mommies and their babies. Some would have a couple, and a few had over 11! Eventually they’d all come and eat bread from us. One day, a new mom came out, but she had only one duckling. What made these two stand out wasn’t the fact that she had only one baby, but rather that she was the worst mother ever.
From the first time we saw her, she was swimming quickly along the water and her little singleton was struggling to keep up and chirping frantically. She reached our side of the bank and climbed up to get bread. All the other mother’s had to take the longer route because the bank was too steep near us for the ducklings to be able to get out of the water. This momma just hopped out and walked away from her baby. The lonely duckling finally reached the bank and tried frantically over and over to get out. He would slide off the mud into the water repeatedly, all while crying his frantic chirp continuously. The momma then proceeded to beg food from myself and neighbors, then went to eat some grass and sunbathe. All while the lonely duckling paced her, just a few feet away in the water. All the other mother ducks were highly protective of their babies, and even mothers with 11 babies never left one behind.
Daily, I watched the antics of all the ducks and could only hope that this mother would find her mothering instinct, and also to wonder what had happened that she could neglect her baby so. Soon, the lonely duckling discovered the shallow end of the bank and would swim by himself to the end, and the run as fast as he could to find his mom. When he’d reach her, she’d completely ignore him. If other mothers were nearby, they’d all peck him and chase him away…and his mother didn’t care at all. He became the talk of the neighborhood. My neighbors, whom I rarely ever spoke to, became my confidants who wanted updates on how he was doing while they were at work. The first thing my husband would say when he came home was, “how’s our boy?” There was something, so pitiful and disheartening to see a baby of any sort, just tossed to the side by its own mother.
After about 2 weeks, and our amazement at his survival, most of the ducks had already paired off and left, a few new moms were showing up with new hatchlings. But the oddest thing happened…the lonely duckling’s mother suddenly had a new drake. She would spend all day swimming and eating with him and when her baby got near, both would chase him off. His own mother, abandoned him for a new man. In our daily lives, we see people do this sort of thing and it’s not that shocking. But seeing it in wildlife? That was truly horrendous and heartbreaking. Everyone in the neighborhood couldn’t stop talking about it. Everyone knew that a 2 week old duckling just was not able to survive without a mom. There were tons of predators, cars, cats, cool nights. We knew in our hearts, that this lone duckling was going to die.
One neighbor called a wildlife rescue and was informed that this was just a part of nature and they would not take him in. That first day he swam in circles around that pond crying his little heart out. I stayed outside with my daughter the entire day watching him. He never came up to eat. When the sun set, he went to the wild side of the pond and I couldn’t sleep that night. First thing in the morning I ran out with bread and waited. Then I saw him. With relief I started tossing bread on the bank to lure him over. Soon so many moms and their babies came to eat and I saw him swimming to the shallow bank and come towards me. All the moms who’d eaten their fill and were sunbathing with their brood nearby jumped up and attacked him. I tried to chase them off but only scared him more. After several hours he swam near me and I threw some bread to him. He was able to gobble down a few bites before the other moms chased him off again. This became our daily goal, anytime someone saw him they would give him food and try to fend off the other ducks. To our amazement, a week passed and he was still alive. He was getting bigger but not near as big as the ducklings who had hatched around the same time. He wasn’t as smooth and pretty…he had patches of missing fluff from angry moms. He wasn’t as round and as adorably plump as the other ducklings. But he was smart. The lonely duckling was learning to be a survivor. Lean, bedraggled, fast and intelligent. He would sneak along the shadows, sometimes fall in with other ducklings and eat as fast as he could before the moms would notice him. The moms were still taking their ducklings to the shallow part of the bank, and the lonely duckling was the only baby able to climb up the steep part and get to the bread first. When predators were nearby, he’d dart into his chosen hiding spots where other moms were frantically trying to get their entire brood under cover.
One day a woman showed up with a shoebox. She worked for the wildlife rescue and felt bad. At this point, we knew he was going to survive and that she would not be able to catch him. She said, “Oh, it will be easy to catch a weak, abandoned duckling.” She left that evening with an empty box.
As if things couldn’t be more depressing, I woke up one morning to the biggest brood of ducklings who also happened to have one of the best moms, running around outside chirping hysterically with no mom to be seen. I knew that something must have gotten her. They were older than the lonely duckling, and plenty fat, so I thought they’d be ok too. But they weren’t. They were scared and confused and slept on my deck that night, shivering until I took towels out for them. After 2 days of them starving and nearly freezing all 12 ducklings fortunately accidentally fell in with another brood of 11 ducklings who were several weeks younger. At first the mother started trying to chase them off but then as the chaos grew with 23 ducklings, she gave up and adopted them. As humorous as it was to watch a duck with 23 ducklings, I began to think that maybe we could get the lonely duckling adopted too. He apparently had the same idea. He fell in with them during a meal time, and instead of darting away…he stayed. With hope in my heart I prayed she wouldn’t notice. And she didn’t…at first. I was feeding another family that had approached when I heard squealing. She had the lonely duckling and was ripping his fluff out! I don’t know how she knew but she did. I was furious and screamed at her! She let him go, he darted under my deck, and the rest ran away. He eventually came out. I thought he’d be hurt, scared, defeated. He walked out, shook his fluff, looked at me and casually walked to the edge of the bank and jumped in the water. There was a gleam in his eye…a look of determination and intelligence that I never could have fathomed a bird could possess. At that moment I stopped worrying, took a seat and spent the rest of the summer enjoying watching him grow up into one of the strongest, most beautiful ducks on that pond.
