Circle of Life

We had an encounter with the circle of life today. Josh had spent the night with a friend and we went to pick him up. On the way home we stopped to take care of a library issue (we forgot to return some books and had a $58 fine! But that's another blog... all's well now ;-)). As we were heading back to the main road, we had to cut through a large parking lot. Out of the corner of his eye, Josh saw a mother duck and her ducklings go under a parked car. The car looked as if it had been parked there a long time...it was dented and looked undriveable. We watched them for a little bit to see if they were going to move on, and if so, we would try to keep them safe.

Actually, we called both Operation Wildlife and animal rescue to see if there was anything they could do - but both said leaving them alone was the right thing to do. If they started moving we could keep them safe by stopping traffic, but otherwise, the mother duck knew what she was doing.

Turns out, she definitely did. As we watched, a hawk came down and swooped something up with him. It wasn't a live duckling, but one that had probably been attacked just prior to us driving up and the mother shuttling her babies to safety. He flew off with the meal and perched on a nearby telephone pole. We kept watch, but the mother stayed safely under the car.

I did get out of the van and tried to locate a nest. I didn't ever find one, but there were some bushes next to the car that looked very dense, and could have had a nest down in there. Actually, that's right next to where the hawk got the duckling, and there were two others who didn't make it either right by the bush. We're guessing perhaps the nest was either in the bushes or nearby and she scooted the rest of the brood to safety.

It was a hard lesson on the circle of life, but as I pointed out, the hawk's baby needed to eat too... and that could be one of the reasons ducks have so many ducklings...not all will survive to adulthood. We ended up spending about an hour watching the ducks before I convinced the kids that they would be ok, that the mother knew what she was doing and wouldn't come out til it was safe.

When we got home, the girls looked out their bedroom window to check on the dove that is nesting on the branch right outside. There are two babies there that are providing hours of entertainment. Turns out, they seem to enjoy Rylie's singing. She's been practicing the music for her upcoming week of drama camp - they are doing Honk! Jr. (a version of the ugly duckling story). Whenever she sings they perk up and look her way ;-)