{Tiny Wings}

I don’t know why I’m having such a hard time writing this Duck Update. But I am.

Momma Duck had been sitting on her nest almost non-stop for the last week. The nest got taller and taller, and more padded with feathers. Since she was so serious about staying there, I made it a ritual to go and chuck small pieces of bread at her, so she could eat without leaving the nest. We even set out a cup of water for her to drink. She was doing some serious nesting — stepping from the nest to rearrange the eggs with her bill, and leaving only occasionally to fly to the other side of the house to do a bit of grooming and drinking from the swimming pool.

So, when we noticed some broken eggshells that she had removed from the nest on Saturday morning, we all were looking forward to seeing some ducklings!! She sat there all day, and I thought I heard a tiny peep coming from underneath her!!

So, imagine our shock when Sunday morning, the nest was completely empty. Momma was gone . . . there were no duckies inside the nest . . . but a bunch of broken eggshells surrounding the nest.

Mike was convinced that the eggs had all hatched and that Momma had taken the ducklings elsewhere. I feared that some critter had discovered the nest and had . . . well, you know.

A few hours later, we found Momma in our pool taking a wicked bath. It was comical how seriously she was cleaning herself. I sat there, wishing she could talk so she could tell me where those babies were. Were the ducklings safe somewhere else?? With the males, who had disappeared for the last week?? Had they met an unfortunate end?? What? Where?? TELL ME!!! ((Sigh.))

Yesterday morning, the males reappeared, and hung out in the pool with Momma again. Would they all be relaxing if there were babies to attend to? I keep praying that we’ll see a whole fleet of ducklings in the next few days . . . but I truly fear we won’t.

I keep explaining to the kids that all sorts of things like this happen in nature when we aren’t looking . . . but I’m truly as disappointed as they are in this case. I’m keeping my fingers crossed, hoping this story will have a happy ending. . .

I’m glad that this past weekend (and its subsequent Monday) are done and over!! Wow!!! Normally, I enjoy weekends . . . but when you wake up both Saturday and Sunday mornings to find out that your message boards have been hacked while you blissfully slept . . . well . . . talk about a rude awakening. I’m truly amazed that people enjoy doing that sort of thing. I mean, what benefit is there to messing up the message boards for a bunch of hormonal women?? Duh! Hello . . .

If there’s a silver lining, it’s this: I’ve learned a lot about the workings of my site that I didn’t know before, but probably should have!! Oh, and that I am surrounded by some of the most wonderfully supportive people around!! My site members are awesome. They took a lot of time to encourage me, and let me know how much I was appreciated. My husband and my children were great, too – letting me rant, giving me lots of hugs, and then letting me get my work done!! (Plus we managed to do a lot of fun things this weekend, despite the fact!) And my parents, sister, and brother-in-law were also there when I needed them. I’m a lucky girl. Thanks to the whole lot of you for making a horrible situation a little more tolerable. I’m happy to report that I didn’t sprout any grey hairs or new wrinkles or anything!!!

So, the boards have been upgraded, and now I just have to make everything look like home again. It might take a bit (since I’m not exactly an expert) but I know that nobody will mind too much!! I’m off to rest my tired noggin for this evening!! Good night!