DUCKIE, Part TWO

Did you ever have one of those dreams or what probably one would call a nightmare, where you're running as fast and as hard as you can, but you're not getting anywhere? After seeing the snake all slithered out on that tree trunk, all I could think of was to find Sig as fast as I could. I knew a rifle was going to be included in there somewhere but first I was going to have to run. And that is what I did.... if one could call that huffing, stumbling type gait actual running. I am certainly not as fast as I used to be. So there I was running down the road, leaping – sort of – onto the yard and yelling “snake!”

Not to change the subject (a saying I will never understand because, of course, the subject is being changed and quite intentionally), but this running and yelling at the same time took me back a few months earlier. One cold, winter day, Sig and I were in the front yard working on a house project, when we heard our chickens making extra noise in the back yard. Rather than my husband checking on this himself, he sent me to see what was going on. When I rounded the house, there to my amazement a few yards in front of me, was a red fox with one of the hens in his mouth. I immediately started yelling and shouting at the fox and to my surprise, he dropped the chicken and ran up the hill away from the house. En route, he passed the rooster and to my wonderment, he didn't even attempt to snap up the biggest meal he could have had at his disposal. Anyway, you would have thought that with all that yelling, someone would have come to my rescue. But, no... Sig didn't have a clue what was going on. To this day, I still am in awe of myself that I made a fox drop his meal!!!

So, back to the duck story. I finally get Sig's attention.... SNAKE.... AT THE DUCK NEST! This calls for the rifle and with the tree and hole at an odd angle, the shot zips past the snake and the snake does his own zipping thing right into the hole and completely disappears. The next step to stop the snake terrorist is to get the extension ladder. This is almost scarier than the snake ordeal. Picture a very tall tree on the side of a hill with a ladder perched on the side of the hill leaning up against a tree with a hole that has a snake in it. Sounds and looks like a recipe for disaster to me. To make a long story short, Sig climbed the ladder, stuck a hook thingymajig into the hole, pulled out a snake and threw it to the ground. Thankfully, he hadn't fallen off the ladder and was able to climb down... I handed him the rifle (I'm sort of like a surgical nurse.... able to handle the equipment but not able to use it)... BOOM... the snake was dead. But to make sure, Aaron used his air rifle for insurance. (If someone else were writing this story, someone would have added that a certain person performed a little dance when the snake hit the ground in front of the certain person. I know for a fact, that the certain person did emit a noise from the mouth.)

After the ordeal, another climb up the ladder was necessary to see if there were any eggs left. With all the eggs seemingly intact, we were left wondering if Mother Duck would come back. We had raised mallards in the past and were experienced enough in their habits to know that if something scared them off their nests, they would never go back. Eventually, relief was felt when Mother Duck was seen swooping in to take care of her nest.

Not knowing when Mother Duck had started incubating her eggs, we really didn't have a day to pinpoint for hatching. However, one morning I observed a commotion that involved a low-flying fowl and a cat right on its tail whizzing past the window. Almost before I had a chance to think, the same bird and cat whizzed by going the other direction. Luckily, I broadcasted the fact that Baby Cat was chasing a bird which triggered the thought in my husband's head that the ducklings had probably hatched and the bird I had actually seen was probably Mother Duck keeping the cat away from her family.

That sent panic among us.... we had three cats and we knew all three of them were not averse to feathers and wings. We scrambled outside to evaluate the situation. And where was that nasty cat? She had disappeared. I was sure she was munching or had been munching on little ducklings. It's always a wonder to me that I can think of a cat as a wonderful pet with its purring, lovable softness and companionship and yet, at the other end of the spectrum when all is not going well.... I am seriously thinking of bodily harm to that no-good rat. It's called nature.... but I don't like it.

There I was.... peering here and there, looking into brush, under bushes and listening for any rustling and peepings of little, fragile, fuzzy balls of cuteness.... when Sig pointed out for me to look behind me. I turned and what a wonder!!! There went Mama Duck and one, two, three, four ducklings right behind her.... marching across the dirt road, to make their way to the creek.

Again, out came the extension ladder. Again, up the tree went my husband.... this time to check if there were any unhatched eggs. Soon he was down with three unhatched eggs and shortly thereafter, all three eggs were sitting in an incubator. And so the waiting game began....

REAL-TIME Duckie Update

It's official... the wood ducks are back. Duckie is now swimming the creek with several pairs of wood ducks. There seems to be more males, not counting Duckie, than females. I am wondering what the outcome will be... is this the day that Duckie forsakes his human family?

REAL-TIME Duckie Update

Yay!!! I was pleasantly surprised yesterday evening right before supper. I went out and called to Duckie in our little language that we use between each other. He still didn't answer so I went back to the kitchen to finish up cooking. About five to ten minutes later, I looked out the kitchen window and what a beautiful sight was before me.... Duckie sitting on the fence. I still don't know where he was hiding out but it was so nice to know he wasn't gone yet.

REAL-TIME Duckie Update

I am a little disheartened this evening. We haven't seen Duckie since around noon today which is very unusual. I knew this time would be coming but was still hoping to put off the inevitable. I was sure hoping that he would nest here during the spring and stay the summer. Maybe as night starts falling, he will come home. If he doesn't, I still have full intentions of finishing the series.

SLEDDING ADVENTURES

Sig worked some more on the sledding paths. The boys now can choose between the short drop or the long run which intersect into one path. However, at the end of the path is a tunnel for the boys to navigate through. I thought about trying it out myself, but the image of Pooh Bear getting stuck in the hole at Rabbit's house made me have second thoughts. Of course, Duckie had to get in the middle of things. Sig finally put him up to keep him from getting injured.

REAL-TIME Duckie Update

We reached a record low last night with temps dipping down to 27 below on one thermometer and to 29 below on the other. Even though Duckie's quarters are not super warm neither are they so very cold that it would hurt him. However, after all these snow-bound days, he hasn't gotten to get out much as the creek is mostly frozen over and with 25 inches of snow everywhere, there's virtually no ground to walk on.

Anyway, I guess Sig was feeling sorry for him and thought that Duckie needed some company, because the next thing I knew here was Duckie. In the house. He has now been in here for a couple of hours and he has yet to shut up for any length of time. That boy is very noisy. Oh, by the way, he is in a cage. It would not be good for our house or him to be flying around dropping unmentionables at random. I did see on the internet that some people make diapers for their ducks. I can't see myself doing that... yet.

Tomorrow should be a good day for him. It will be a lot warmer and there will be quite a bit of water. He's used to staying out all day and having total freedom. We will all be glad for the warmer weather.

DUCKIE, Part ONE

If I had known what I know today, I would have given him a real name. I also would have documented a daily log, or at the very least, a weekly log. I also would have taken "baby" pictures. But I didn't. In my defense, I never dreamed that our relationship would last as long as it did. No, this is not a relationship that is shared between individuals of the human race, but one that began between a human family and one insignificant egg. Shall I start at the beginning? But, of course, I should... because before the egg there was the chicken, or in this instance... a prospective mother wood duck.

Our adventure began sometime in the spring of 2010. For the second year in a row, wood ducks had ventured into our area and this time, they seemed to be staying around permanently. Dale, (or Sig, as I and his family call him) my husband, is a very outdoorsy person and has always spent a majority of his time outside. In saying that, he generally is very aware of all the wildlife. When he related to me that a wood duck couple were checking out holes in the trees, I too tried to be more observant.

I must confess that up until that time, I didn't realize that wood ducks used holes in trees to make their nests. To me, it just seemed odd to see a duck sitting in a tree.... they should be swimming, dipping their heads and skittering around in circles.... in water! But duh! Shouldn't the name wood duck have something to do with wood? Sometimes it takes me awhile to actually get it.

So back to our little couple. The male wood duck is considered to be one of the most beautiful or colorful ducks and as is the case with many of the female species, the little wife was significantly plainer. No matter, the couple needed to find that perfect place to nest their future offspring.

One day soon after their first tree investigation, Sig managed to see the mother duck fly into a hole of a tree about 20 feet from our house and after observing on the sly, we decided that this tree was probably "the nest."

I do a lot of research on the internet, so my job was to get a little more information on the wood duck. We had raised many mallards and knew the gestation of their eggs, but with the wood duck, we were not sure. Even after my research, we still had no idea when the eggs would actually hatch out as the window of hatch was very wide. Usually, what I have always seen in a hatch is just a variance of a day or two. With the wood duck, it was as much as ten days. Without a definite hatch date, we realized we needed to be on guard as much as possible.

I guess anyone who might be reading this is wondering why we were so anxious about the hatch day. Let me explain. We have cats. Cats like wings. All this adds up to tragedy! If we know the approximates, then the felines get to stay inside our shop for a day or two until safety is assured for the winged community.

Days later, we were still under the assumption that the mother duck was still in this tree hole that was 20 feet above ground. Yet, we seldom saw her even though we did see the male duck several times in the creek. It had been so long since we had seen her, we were disappointingly coming to the conclusion that she may have left.... may have been scared away. Based on that so-called knowledge, I informed my husband one evening that I was going to walk down the road and see if I could see any more potential nest trees. Sig and I were sure hoping that she was still around somewhere.

As I started down the road, my two boys, Heath and Aaron, came running up to me. They wanted to know what I was doing, and after stating my intentions they wanted in on the action. Little did we know what sort of action was just seconds away. We hadn't walked 25 feet, when I happened to look up at the tree where I was hoping and wishing that the duck still was. I immediately knew I didn't have to take another step to find her. I knew she was there. I knew this because there was something very different about that tree and because I knew that there was something different, I knew she was inside. Or at least if she wasn't inside, her eggs were still there.... because, there with its head down in the hole and the rest of its long, slinking body hugging the outside of the tree WAS A BLACK SNAKE.