Duck Love

Okay, I admit that these ducks have bought and paid for me.

I love my funny ducklings. They're growing at a ridiculous rate. Already twice the size they were a week and a half ago. I'd show you a picture but... well.... you know. My camera is in the camera hospital. I don't know yet what the prognosis is.

Every day after work I take my ducks out into the yard for playtime. All day long they have to live in a big plastic storage bin in the red room under a heat lamp. By 6 p.m. they're ready to play. I take them out into the yard and turn the hose on low to make a puddle in the grass for them. They go right for it, dabbling and wallowing in the puddle and drinking water from the hose. They like to sit at the mouth of the hose and dabble in the stream as it comes out. I put food in their puddle for them and let them forage for it.

Periodically they get a wild hair and take off running around the yard. This is hysterical because of the way they run, with their long necks stretched out and their tiny wings up, but also because of the sound their feet make: thumpa thumpa thumpa thumpa thump. They can run pretty fast considering those feet. Then they settle down and start foraging around the grass, snapping up everything in their path and testing it to see if its edible... leaves, grass, bugs, acorns, little rocks, my shoelaces, bits of paper, the corner of my book. They nibble everything. They have the funniest little faces, and when they're really considering you, they turn their heads to the side to get a good look with one eye.

If I walk away, even for a minute, they go into a storm of peeps and run to find me. This weekend I was working in the garden and had to leave them while I went to turn off the hose. I heard frantic little peeps and came back to find Ping lying on his back in a mud puddle, helplessly kicking his little dinosaur legs in the air. He'd slid down a mound of dirt into the mud and was stuck like a turtle on its back. He had to be rescued and get an impromptu bath in their swimming tub. It was terribly undignified for him.

I'll get new photos up as soon as I can.