Make Way for Ducklings!

Guess what we found in our backyard yesterday? A mommy duck and her little ducklings!

Wednesday night we kept hearing a peeping bird sound, and I wasn't sure what it was, but assumed it was a songbird enjoying the spring weather. In the morning, the kids and I went outside to see the garden, and I noticed a duck like the one in the picture flapping around in the neighbor's yard. Note: we didn't take this picture, but it did look like this one when it flew. I think it was a Black Duck. That was pretty exciting! Our cat also got outside and seemed to be prowling around, chasing the duck a little bit.

Pretty soon, we noticed that she kept making more of those loud peeping sounds and going back into the lillies by the other house's foundation--where there were several fuzzy little ducklings! We tried to catch our cat to keep him out of the way, and the mommy duck herded one wayward duckling (that had been wandering around) over under our lilac bush while the others stayed hidden in the lillies. She then led the big group away, across the yard and across the street to another vacant house, while the little lilac duckling peeped away, sounding very worried. We finally got the cat inside and the kids hid under the blankets on the clothesline to watch the drama. Eventually the mommy duck came back from the other house to look for her hidden baby, and the baby went running across the yard right by Sarah and her tricycle to meet with the mommy and go to their hiding place. We all rejoiced at the safe reunion!