Of Ducks, Geese and Man~

I am so far behind with my blogging, I may never catch up!
 
With this entry, I will share something from mid-May to last Monday.
 
The story begins with an early morning phone call from my friend Sandy...
"Mary, you have got to come quick, some baby ducks are about to get hit, they are with their parents along side of the road, and it is just awful. " 

I asked her where she was and headed out the door, got into my car and realized, I still had my nightgown on, and that would never do.  
After a quick dash back inside, changed, and then back to car, I was driving like a safe maniac to get to the scene, some 3 miles from home.  
Sure enough, just like a replay from last year, there was momma duck, this time, with daddy duck and their 5 little ducklings, making their way along a very busy 2 lanes, which becomes 4 lanes, with lots of early morning traffic, and they were heading for disaster, with a capital D!
 I gathered up 2 ducklings first and watched the male fly across the lanes of traffic in the wrong direction, and thought, well, I can't worry about him right now.
  Then I gathered up the remaining 3 ducklings, which all fit into my left hand.  
All the while momma duck is quacking and flying around, landing and pleading, as I assured her, that I had her best interest in the palm of my hand and that we could do this, but she needed to trust me.  
As I walked, I allowed the little duckling heads to pop out and keep up with their baby  peeping quacks, so she would know they were OK.  
I walked through the parking lots of several business establishments and momma duck continued to keep up, or sometimes, fly and land in front of me.  
We finally made it to a grassy patch, by a traffic signal and as I waited, momma duck stayed close by me and then while the light was still red, she flew across the 4 lanes of moving traffic... 
Yeah, she knew where I was headed, or at the very least, wanted me to follow her.  
Once the light turned green, we were off, and I caught up with her. 
Crystal Lake was in my view, but these little ducklings would have a bad chance as tiny as they were, and those big turtles were awaiting breakfast.  
I then decided on a backyard with lots of shade trees to place these little ones down on, across the lane from the lake.  
It was a hectic few minutes, I was exhausted, but, all turned out beautifully, and I hope that all of them have made it to swim and eventually fly for a very long time...

*Note...last year I shared something very similar that happened at the same place, and my bet, is this is the same pair that keep coming back~ 

I am linking up with Mary for "Mosaic Monday" at
http://dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.com/
and

Dave for "World Bird Wednesday" at
http://www.pineriverreview.blogspot.com/

 

 

 Please tell me that is not a smile of appreciation on her lovely face...

 The male Mallard duck above is not their daddy duck, but a likeness of, since the daddy flew the scene and was never seen again~

 Young Canada Geese goslings at Cave Hill~

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am thinking that some ducks have been cross breeding here, not sure, but just thinking in that direction...is that not the sweetest couple featured below~

 

 More Mallard ducks  and ducklings at Harrods Creek and the Ohio River~

 

 

 

 

Below a goose drying it's wings~

 

Just about every Monday for the past couple of years, the weather permitting, I take my now, 88 year old father-in-law on outings and most of the time, we end up at Cave Hill.  

He LOVES to feed the ducks and geese.  

Last Monday, we were at his favorite spot and I took these images.  

I then headed down the hill to feed some bread to the 2 Mute Swans. 

When I turned around to return to Dad, I saw a man lying on the ground in front of Dad...what on earth...  

It turned out to be a reporter from the local Courier Journal newspaper and he was going to feature a photograph of Dad feeding his friends in the next days newspaper.  

It was in there and I must confess, that gentleman's image turned out really awful, but dad was thrilled and was quite happy that he had made the news, in a good way~