Day 75: Ducklings Make Their Way

Franklin Park, JP/Dorchester, MA, 6:45am-7:50am
dense and billowy overcast, cool, light breeze

The ducklings caught my eye as they tottered by the edge of Scarborough Pond. They were so new, uncertain, and strange-looking that I thought I'd discovered a new water bird. But as the two dark-grey birds eased gingerly into the (frigid!) water, I could see that their light beaks were duckish in shape, and their coloring (grey bodies, black heads) ducky as well.

It was an endearing sight: the two ducklings, while not brand-new chicks, were clearly youngsters. They paddled with effortful head-bobbing, and seemed terribly unsure of which way they should go. But whichever way that was, they were sticking together - that much was for sure!

A tentative paddle here, a turn to another direction, then a cautious foray in a third.

Eventually two parental ducks rolled by and the ducklings fell in line with greater confidence, though their swimming was still jerky and haphazard compared to the placid glide of the adult ducks.


Later, the breakfast-club-of-ducks: a swift convergence of some 15 ducks from opposite sides of the pond.


I sketched a piece about following, based on the two young ducks who were so tentative, yet so firmly-attached to one another: