DUCK!!! Here comes a flock of them!!!

I have been having trouble with my computer for many weeks now being unable to upload photos to this blog. I seem to have resolved some of the issues so here I go again with some up-to-date posts for those of you who are interested.

This picture is one that I took on one of my early morning walks about three weeks ago, around the beginning of June, 2011. Even though I usually walk the same couple of routes everyday, I always like to look around at the beauty that God has given us though his wonder of nature. If you look, you will see. With all the rain we had this spring, a section of ditch along the road going north out of town collected a lot of water and held that water for a long time. I had noticed earlier, a pair of Blue-Winged Teals swimming in the ditch but this day I noticed a little more activity. Sure enough! Extra splashing and extra quacking! As I approached, Mama Duck started quacking for her little ones to "gather around and follow me".

I did not have my camera with me so I decided that an extra mile to the house and back wouldn't hurt me so off I went. Upon my return to the ditch, I actually came up too fast and startled Mama. What followed was one of the most exciting things that I have experienced from all my excursions of watching nature. Mama Duck instantly flew up out of the ditch, quaking her head off, and landed right at my feet. She then proceeded to flop wildly around on the road right by my feet with one of her wings hanging out to one side as if it were broken. What did I do?!! Did I do something to cause her to injure herself? What can I do to help her get back to her babies? In all the excitement I realized what she was up to. A diversion. She wanted me to think that she was injured so I would go after her and leave her babies alone. All this time I was trying to do what Karen would have done if she had been there. Talk soothingly to Mama and encourage her gently to go back to her babies. Finally, when Mama realized that that I wasn't going after her or her little ones, she gathered her wits about her and quietly slipped back into the water and over to her babies. They quickly lined up behind her as if Mama was taking roll call and with all of them quacking away, they swam in circles and all eventually calmed down. Oh, I better quick take a picture:
Isn't nature wondeful??