On Sunday one of the female ducks hatched her latest brood.
One of which had deformed eyes and was clearly struggling to keep up with it's family.
My heart broke for it but I forced myself to accept that nature would take its course and let the family go on it's way. I assumed the duckling would quickly become a hawk or gator's lunch.
Through out the day I watched as several of the adults in the flock tried to kill the duckling.
(play pen)
Finally, in the evening I went with Seth to check on mom and babies who were hanging out in the canal. The blind duckling was missing.
(Home for now)
As we were going back in the house we heard the duckling chirping. It was trapped in weeds in one of the canal tunnels. Much to my children's delight, I couldn't leave it there to die alone.
(she waits in a coffee can while we change her bedding)
We fished it out and decided to raise it as best as we can raise a blind duck (Along with the 3 lizards the boys have caught or hatched from eggs). It wouldn't eat at first so I thought it was going to be a short lived venture but that changed once things settled down.
We happen to be reading Charlotte's Web so in the spirit of the book, I suggested we name the duck Wilber. Then while doing some research on how to care for ducks I found that you could "sex" a duck quite easily. Turns out Wilber is actually a Wilma. Oops.
So now Wilma lives on our porch, in a bin during most of the day (except when she's helping me home school). And sleeps in the dining room under a heating lamp at night.
I think the video speaks to how she's fitting in around here!
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