Greensboro Birds

During the inclement weather of the past two days, I wasn’t able to find our Mallard ducklings. The mother must have had them well-hidden, although Josh reported a sighting in the grass near the smaller pond yesterday. Today I found all 13 five-day-olds swimming unchaperoned (i.e., no adults to be seen) in the big pond, letting loose with cute high-pitched “peep-peeps.” The male swan shooed them away at one point, making me worry I was about to see something not so pretty. I’m happy to report that he merely shooed them with his usual perterbed attitude.

A little while later, however, I was watching the baker’s dozen dabble around in the appropriately named duckweed a few feet away from me. Suddenly I noticed that one was semi-submerged and peeping at high volume. Hmm, turtles hang out over there, I thought, and went over to investigate. A huge bullfrog had his mouth over the back end of the duckling! Before I could sort out my photojournalist ethics (free it? or take a picture of it in the frog’s maw? hmm), the duckling freed itself and peeped like it had just seen the past five days flash before its eyes as it hurried to rejoin its siblings at the center of the pond. School of Hard Knocks, class dismissed.