Ditchbank Drama!

Emma Dog and I were walking south down Bear’s Ditch, headed back for the car on a pleasant summer evening, when we encountered a Mama Mallard and her family of maybe 6-8 adorable ducklings.

Like these.

They happened to be approaching a culvert beneath a dirt road. Mama Mallard steered the brood expertly clear.

Except for one who did not get the message in time. She began thrashing frantically and uttering panicked peeps – “Oh noes!” – as racing current swept her right into the culvert.

I waited anxiously on the other side. For a moment I thought she’d never emerge – although I thought I could hear her continued peeps for help. Her mother also was quacking steadily to help everybody formate on her.

Then the duckling came shooting out, still flapping and fussing. I started scoping out possible ways to help, and saw a watergate maybe thirty feet downstream where I figured I could either maybe steer her to the bank or even, worst case, snag her before she got hopelessly separated from her family. She was certainly way too small to survive on her own – these were bitty ducklings, sparrow-sized.

But I underestimated Mama. Here she came waddling down the ditchbank with the rest of the brood trooping obediently after. She led them safely past the race of the culvert and back down to the water, quacking the while.

Meanwhile the unlucky duckling had got her bearings enough to paddle toward the bank on her own, where the current was less and she was able to regain control over her navigation. Mama steered the brood into the main flow and sailed past serenely, with the whole flotilla following.

Except for one who swam right up to the one who’d gotten separated, as if to say, “What the hell’s wrong with you?” Then the two buddies paddled out after their fellows, and joined the procession safely, to my immeasurable relief.

I kept an eye on Emma for a while lest she decide she needed to retrieve some for me. She did seem to feign a certain interest in sniffing a grass clump not far past the flock. I called her on it and we, and the ducks, went our respectively merry ways.