Remember That Missing Duck? I Found Her.

Mamma duck was not happy about me trying to get a closeup

I don’t take attendance, but like anyone with livestock, I have a general idea of how many animals there are, what “clan” each is a member of, and where that clan likes to hang out.

About a month ago one of the clans, the usually troublesome ducksketeers, moved from the shady area under the fig by the coop to the lower end of the yard by the wood pile and plastic pot storage. I saw the five of them often enough that I didn’t think anything was amiss, but I should have known something was up.

This morning I came down to the feed shed and saw these two boys standing on top of the wood pile. Weird. Ducks aren’t really climbers.

A couple of the boy ducks play lookout from the top of the wood pile.

Then I go to open the shed and I hear lots of peeping — way more than Cueball and Eightball peep.

I turn around, and boom, there’s mamma and a new batch of babies emerging from the wood pile. I tried to get close enough to get an accurate count, but mamma wasn’t cool with that. Here’s as close as I could get:

This is as close as mamma would let me get to the ducklings. I count 13.

I think there’s a baker’s dozen. Twelve are yellow and one is brown with mallard coloring (he must be the freebie).