Friday, May 28, 2010

Maggie's story

About a month ago, we discovered a female mallard had "moved in" to the flower bed in the front of our office building. We quickly named her Maggie, and she settled right in. Over the next several days she laid eleven eggs and started incubating them.




By the middle of May, the Memphis temps were regularly reaching mid-80s and an occasional 90 degrees. So soon, a water bowl appeared by Maggie.




Then, a couple weeks ago, the building maintenance crew cleaned out the flower bed ... except for the part nearest to Maggie. They were taking care of her too.




Next, a bowl of bird seed appeared next to the water bowl. Then, as the weather got hotter, an umbrella was placed so that Maggie wouldn't have to spend her days in the hot sun.




Yesterday, Maggie's eggs hatched! Ten baby ducks were born!




Then, this afternoon -- she led them away. There are a couple of ponds nearby and she was headed toward one of those.

More later (including pictures of the babies on the move) --

2 comments:

  1. Oh....thank you for sharing this with us.You and your co workers should be commended for your loving hearts.The Mommy and the babies are so cute.Maybe she will visit.Let's hope so.....Dena

    ReplyDelete
  2. You know, I've heard that female ducks will sometimes return to the same place to lay their eggs. So who knows ... maybe we'll see Maggie again next Spring. Wouldn't that be great?

    ReplyDelete

Please leave me a comment so I know you've been here! Tell me what you think -- I really want to know.