Okokok SO

The mallards.

Last year, I was walking past the lake when I noticed a female Mallard fighting for her life. It looked like she was stuck on something, but when I got closer I saw a turtle had her by the wing and was dragging her down. So I grabbed a stick, waded into the water and beat the turtle until it let go of the duck. She splashed off, but her wing was ripped in half and she was bleeding badly. I spent a few days trying to catch her, but she was skittish (understandably so), so we never did and the wing did heal eventually, though she can't ever fly again and she has some crooked feathers that make her quite distinctive. We named her Bridgit.

Around this same time, a migrating duck passing by had like 12 ducklings and she just. Was a shit mom. Constantly left them unattended, so they got picked off by hawks and turtles, etc, until all she had left was one duckling, which she then promptly abandoned. All the ducks migrated away, but Bridgit, unable to fly, took the duckling under her wing (lol), and so we named the duckling Lola.

Since then, Bridgit and Lola have grown quite trusting of us. They're year rounders, they don't migrate, so they just hang out around the farm, go in the chicken coop for food, and once followed one of the other workers here into a horse stall. He shut the door and said Bridgit was his pet now and I was like no... and let Bridgit loose. But the point is, the ducks trust us.

So this year Lola has had her first batch of ducklings and she's been a GREAT mom. Hasn't left them unattended once. A few nights ago she woke me up quacking up a storm and I ran outside and the hawk was dive bombing the ducklings, so I threw a stick at it and it left.

The other day, I noticed Lola wasn't with the ducklings. Bridgit was, and she was shaking her wings and quacking and very distressed, and I realized some male mallards were harassing Lola and not letting her go back to the ducklings. They were in the middle of the lake, so I couldn't do much to help, but Bridgit and the ducklings were near the shore. Bridgit saw me and CHASED me, quacking, and I was like what the fuck and turned around and she turned as well and led me back to the ducklings. So I stopped next to them, and Bridgit swam away and left me alone with the ducklings. She joined the fray with the male ducks, and after a few minutes her and Lola made it back to the ducklings. So I walked away and they happily resumed duck business.

It just was such a cool moment of them knowing me and trusting me enough to watch the ducklings, and being smart enough to communicate that desire to me. It absolutely blows my mind and makes me wonder how smart these animals really are, and I'm just looking forward to watching these ducklings grow up with their weird parental figures.

That's kinda it for the duck drama, though I'm sure there's going to be more stories ahead!