Duckling

A little over 4 weeks ago, one of our female ducks started sitting on her nest. It was cute.

A week after that the other female started to consistently sit on the same nest. And then they kind of became two adjacent nests and then they'd sort of combine nests again and share. I don't know. The eggs just kind of shifted as they moved them and turned them and whatever else ducks do to keep all the eggs warm.

Then this Wednesday morning, we had a fun surprise: there was a duckling in the pen. A tiny cute little button of a duckling. We kept expecting more to hatch throughout the day, but none did.

I was cool with one, but Kip really wanted more. He was excited for Lulu's eggs to hatch about a week later.

Unfortunately on Thursday night the temperature dropped a lot and the rain fell a lot and Lulu's nest got washed away. When Kip got home in the morning, he found Lulu with her eggs spread out on the ground, seemingly trying to locate them to higher and warmer ground. But the eggs were cold. Kip helped her move them up (she did not, by the way, appreciate his quick and efficient help). But then she remade a nest and started sitting on them again. But we have very very low expectations for the eggs to hatch. They just got so cold. And probably for much of the night.

Still, we're letting her sit. We'll know Wednesday or Thursday if any miraculously survived. So here's hoping.

But for now, I'm really enjoying that little duckling. We've named her/him Oliver or Ollie, which could become Oliver or Olivia depending on what Ollie turns out to be. The first few days she (I keep thinking of it as a she) spent mostly snuggling with Rosemary (and Lulu too actually--they're totally sister wives). And then the last couple of days Rosemary has been taking her out into the water and they've been swimming and searching for food and all kinds of crazy cuteness.