The unpredictable nature
This morning, as I was leaving the building that contains the Gym, I ran into a mother duck guiding her six ducklings around the lawn. This lawn is a little bit different, as it is surrounded on three sides by buildings. To its north is the Police Training Academy, and Gordon Wiley building on its east and south, and the only open space linking to this piece of green lawn on campus, is a parking lot. It is one of the common areas staff members or students sit around and chitchat during lunch.
Like all mothers, the natural tendencies of the mother duck was to yell at all things that laid eyes on her children, at that particular moment, me. I was busy observing the cuteness and the obedience of the six ducklings trailing their mothers, from brushes to pavement, and from pavement to green lawns with picnic tables. They were marching single filled as if they were part of the Santa Claus parade, with their tails wagging side to side as they follow the duck in front of them, it is a scene that can hardly be put into words.
As the ducks got further away, I resumed walking toward my office, as the last thing I wanted was to be pecked by an angry mother duck just because I’ve decided to cross her path. When I walked passed a brush, I heard a very faint chirping noise. Apparently, a new duckling is hatching behind the brushes and it is looking for its mother. The little duckling is still partially in its shell, while its mother is nearly fifteen meters away.
So I did what most kind souls would have done, I picked up the little duckling, walked over to the mother duck, and put the duckling on the grounds near her, this time I was about twelve feet away, before the mother duck started threatening to peck my eyes out. However, the crying of the baby duckling got her attention, and she decided to come in closer to ‘take a look’ at this baby. Some how she must have recognized the duckling and sat right near it, waiting for the struggling duckling to get on its feet. This time the mother duck seized all hostile intentions towards me and was about five feet away. I left soon afterward as the duckling is now safe with its mother.
Fearing that some other animals might come and pick this duckling as their breakfast, I went back to check out the group after purchasing my morning cup of Tims. There are now seven ducklings waging their tails following their mother around on the green lawn, outside my office.