A True Duck Story from San Antonio , Texas
Something really cute
happened in downtown San Antonio this week. Michael R. is an accounting clerk at
Frost Bank and works there in a second story office. Several weeks ago, he
watched a mother duck choose the concrete awning outside his window as the
unlikely place to build a nest above the sidewalk. The mallard laid ten eggs in
a nest in the corner of the planter that is perched over 10 feet in
the air. She dutifully kept the eggs warm for weeks, and Monday afternoon all of
her ten ducklings hatched.
Michael worried all night how the momma duck was
going to get those babies safely off their perch in a busy, downtown, urban
environment to take to water, which typically happens in the first 48 hours of a
duck hatching. Tuesday morning, Michael watched the mother duck encourage her
babies to the edge of the perch with the intent to show them how to jump off.
Office work came to a standstill as everyone gathered to watch.
The mother flew down below and started quacking
to her babies above. In disbelief Michael watched as the first fuzzy
newborn trustingly toddled to the edge and astonishingly leapt into thin air,
crashing onto the cement below. Micha! el could n't stand to watch this risky
effort nine more times! He dashed out of his office and ran down the stairs to
the sidewalk where the first obedient duckling, near its mother, was resting
in a stupor after the near-fatal fall. Michael stood out of sight under the
awning-planter, ready to help.
As the second one took the plunge, Michael
jumped forward and caught it with his bare hands before it hit the concrete.
Safe and sound, he set it down it by its momma and the other stunned sibling,
still recovering from that painful leap. (The momma must have sensed
that Michael was trying to help her babies.)
One by one the babies continued to jump.. Each
time Michael hid under the awning just to reach out in the nick of time as the
duckling made its free fall. At the scene the busy downtown sidewalk traffic
came to a standstill. Time after time, Michael was able to catch the
remaining eight and set them by their approving mother.
At this point Michael realized the duck family
had only made part of its dangerous journey. They had two full blocks to walk
across traffic, crosswalks, curbs and past pedestrians to get to the closest
open water, the San Antonio River , site of the famed "River Walk." The
onlooking! office secretaries and several San Antonio police officers joined
in. An empty copy-paper box was brought to collect the babies. They carefully
corralled them, with the mother's approval, and loaded them in the container..
Michael held the box low enough for the mom to see her brood. He then slowly
navigated through the downtown streets toward the San Antonio River .. The
mother waddled behind and kept her babies in sight, all the way.
As they reached the river, the mother took over
and passed him, jumping in the river and quacking loudly. At the water's
edge, Michael tipped the box and helped shepherd the babies toward the water and
to the waiting mother after their adventurous ride.
All ten darling ducklings safely made it into
the water and paddled up snugly to momma. Michael said the mom swam in circles,
looking back toward the beaming bank bookkeeper, and proudly quacking.
At last, all present and accounted for: "We're
all together again. We're here! We're here!"
And here's a family portrait before ! they hea
d outward to further adventures...
Like all of us in the big times of our life,
they never could have made it alone without lots of helping hands. I think it
gives the name of San Antonio 's famous "River Walk" a whole new meaning!