November 22 2020

Hi folks,

Another quiet one for me today. Most of the time spent around the house, on my laptop, doing laptop things.

There was a bit of excitement really.

It started at 3:00AM with a colossal crash of thunder, heralding the first of many rain showers that came and went throughout the day

By mid afternoon, my sweetheart was busy in the garden, while I sat inside sending and responding to emails like a slug.

Suddenly, she's yelling to get my attention.

"Quick! quick! You HAVE to see this!"

Okay...

"There's ducklings! DUCKLINGS!"

I jump up and peer through the window.

Sure enough, there's a mother duck leading her babies through our garden and out to the street. She must have come up from the valley at the bottom of the yard.

Haha! Brilliant!

I do have a soft spot for ducks.

You may notice I feature them occasionally on this very blog.

Working at a Water Treatment Plant affords all kinds of opportunity to observe and photograph our Anatidae friends.

By the time I put some pants on and went outside (yeah, lazy day) they had left our yard and were making their way up the hill towards the Sturt Reserve.

My darling filled me in on what had happened in the meantime.

Our side gate is made of small steel tubing, and while the ducklings had no trouble at all jumping through the gaps between each pole, mother duck was stuck.

That was until the gate was opened for her by my sweetheart and on she went, ducklings in tow.

We decided to follow them and make sure they at least got to the Reserve safely.

It is only a block away, but still...

First we had to race back inside and get some proper shoes on, grab some house keys and lock up on the way out.

By the time we got back outside, there was no sign. They'd hightailed it out of there. We continued on anyway, around the corner to the near entrance of the Reserve.

Still couldn't see them.

We decided to keep going. On we went down the valley, towards Flinders University, eventually coming to a small creek at the bottom.

At least, it was a creek a few weeks back. Now it was all dry.

The rain throughout the day ought to fix that though.

Get it flowing again once the waters drain this far down the hills.

We'd lost the ducks, but got a good walk in.

It started raining again, so we made our way home.

Hopefully they made it to their destination safely.

I counted 10 ducklings.

Not the best photo, but here you go.

I just love how determined they are. Mother Duck knew exactly where she wanted to get to. Nothing was stopping her. She just marches on, fluffy babies in tow.