I had to share the story with you. Some of you may know that my
brother, Joel
Armstrong, is a loan officer at Sterling Bank. He
works downtown in a second story office building, overlooking busy
Riverside Avenue.
weeks ago he watched a mother duck choose the cement awning outside his
window as
the uncanny place to build a nest above the sidewalk. The
mallard laid nine eggs in a nest in the corner of the planter that is
perched over 10 feet in the air. She
dutifully kept the eggs warm for weeks and
Monday afternoon all of her nine ducklings hatched.
Joel
worried all night how the momma duck was going to get those babies
safely off their perch in a busy, downtown,
urban environment to take to water, which
typically happens in the first 48 hours of a duck
hatching.
Tuesday
morning, Joel came to work and watched the mother duck encourage her
babies to
the edge of the perch with the intent to show them how to jump
off! The
mother flew down below and started quacking to her babies
above. In
his disbelief Joel watched as the first fuzzy newborn toddled to the
edge and astonishingly leapt into thin air, crashing onto the cement
below.
brother couldn't watch how this might play out. He
dashed out of his office and ran down the
stairs the sidewalk where the first obedient duckling was
stuporing near its mother from the near fatal fall.
looked up. The second duckling was getting ready to jump! He
quickly dodged under the awning while the mother duck quacked at him and
the babies above. As the second one took the plunge, Joel jumped forward and
caught it with his bare hands before it hit the cement. Safe and sound,
he set it by the momma and the other stunned sibling, still recovering
from its painful leap.
One
by one the babies continued to jump to join their anxious family
below. Each time Joel hid under the awning just to reach out in the nick of
time as the duckling made its free fall. The downtown sidewalk came to a
standstill. Time after time, Joel was able to catch the remaining 7 and
set them by their approving mother.
part of its dangerous journey. They had 2 full blocks to walk across
traffic, crosswalks, curbs, and pedestrians to get to the closest open
water, the Spokane River.
The
on looking office secretaries then joined in, and hurriedly brought an
empty copy paper box to collect the babies. They carefully corralled
them, with the mother's approval, and loaded them up into the white
cardboard container. Joel held the box low enough for the mom to see her
brood. He then slowly navigated through the downtown streets toward the
Spokane River, as the mother waddled behind and kept her babies in
sight.
him, jumping into the river and quacking loudly. At the water's edge,
the Sterling Bank office staff then tipped the box and helped shepherd
the babies toward the water and to their mother after their adventurous
ride.
All nine darling ducklings safely made it into the water and
paddled up snugly to momma duck. Joel said the mom swam in circles,
looking back toward the beaming bank workers, and proudly quacking as if
to say, 'See, we did it! Thanks for all the
help!'
Thankfully, one of the secretaries had a digital camera and
was able to capture most of it (except the actually mid-air
catching) in a series of attached photographs.
Dear John,
Thank you for this wonderful story. Love,Mary
I don't know what happened to the pictures; they were there this AM...?
J
here are the pics from the Animal Liberation Front website....
http://www.animalliberationfront.com/News/AnimalPhotos/Animals_201-210/S...
notice their are ten babies???