Save the Ducklings!

Quack quack! Cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep... (you get the picture).

It's baby duckling season and mama duck was right outside our boat but we couldn't see her ducklings. We could hear them but they weren't with mama.

Doug found these three little guys:

But they were in a bit of a predicament. They had managed to climb up into a dinghy on the end of the dock but they couldn't get back out.

Doug got in the dinghy to try to help them but they wanted nothing to do with the oar that could lift them to freedom.

At this point, mama duck is squawking and I'm simultaneously taking photos while keeping an eye on mama duck. Time for Plan B -- use the oar to push down on the half-deflated side of the dinghy and let them escape on their own.

Reunited!

Superhero to ducks -- just another service we offer to our marina neighborhood.

I had another fun duckling sighting a couple days ago (unfortunately sans camera). A mama duck was sitting with 19 ducklings. You read that right, 19! I counted twice to make sure. Is it even possible for one duck to have 19 babies? Or is there a stronger chance they were adopted after another mama duck passed on? Either way she had her hands... uhm, wings... full.