Duckling in the Blue Zone

Some of you may have heard about the duck at Franklin School.  During April vacation, a duck laid her eggs in the faculty parking lot in the back of the school. Fearing for the duck's safety, we called animal control and were told to leave the duck alone.  The teachers and staff have been observing the duck as we enter and leave school each day.  Some have even provided food and water and we blocked off one of the parking spots with cones to protect the nest.

This past Friday, the eggs finally hatched and 9 little duckings were born.  As you might imagine, we were concerned about how these duckings would make it from the Franklin School parking lot to water. After calling several wildlife agencies, I was assured that they would definitely find their way to water.  I wondered if there were any ponds close to the Franklin School.

When I arrived at school this morning and saw the empty nest, I hoped that they had all made it safely to water.  About 20 minutes after getting to school, two students arrived in my office holding.... a duckling!  They had found the tenth duckling waddling through the blue zone.  Several teachers and I prepared a makeshift nest in the office.  We got a box, a warming lamp from the kindergarten, a water vessel and some oatmeal flakes.

Then, we searched the grounds of the school for the mother and the other ducklings.  Unfortunately, they were not to be found.  Just then, a 4th grade student told me that he knew where the duck family had gone.  In fact, on Saturday, he and his family had followed the duckling parade to Cheesecake Brook at Albemarle.  I wondered if the ducks were still there and knew we had to check.

Once the duckling seemed a bit stronger, I put the "nest" in the back seat of my car and headed to Cheesecake Brook.  As I drove down Albemarle, I noticed that my daughter's second grade class was at recess on the Horace Mann playground.  Since we call her "the noticer" at home, I knew she would be the perfect assistant. Lucia walked along the side of the brook while the duckling and I rode in the car beside her.  We crossed Crafts Street and then North Street, and I was beginning to lose hope that we would reunite the duckling with her family.  Lucia was gaining hope that we would have a new pet.  As we neared the end of the brook, Lucia began pointing and jumping up and down.  She had spotted the duckling's family swimming down the brook towards the river.  After wishing the duckling well, we placed it in the water and it quickly swam to join the others.

The happy mother duck rounded up all the ducklings.

And they all swam off together.