Ducks

The ducks that float by my office amaze me. There are a lot of them and they often come and greet us in the parking lot in the mornings. In fact, one of my employees came in and showed me a picture of a duck that was standing by her car. 

She said “I wish we had some corn or bread to feed them.” 

I thought to myself, feed them now, they stay all summer and leave droppings all over our property. No thank you. They are nice to watch, but please do NOT feed the ducks. 

During the winter, the river freezes down all the way to about two feet wide. This past winter, there was always a small gap between the banks that would continue to flow and though it was so cold outside, the ducks were always there. Some would be swimming and others would be walking on the ice. 

This morning my perspective on ducks has changed. On Tuesday mornings, I meet with a walking group and we call ourselves Movin’ Moms. I do not have any children of my own but I do have a dog, so I consider myself a Mom. This walking group was established last year at this time and it has been really fun. We start at 9, walk for about an hour and I head directly to my office from there. The walks are always really great and such an awesome way to start the day. After this morning’s walk, I pull into my office and walk up to the back door and notice that there are five ducks (four males and a female) sitting at the corner of my building. As I get closer, I realize that the female duck was attacked, has fresh blood on her neck, and is dead and these four male ducks will not leave her side. There are feathers everywhere and it seems as though these males may have been the culprit. So my peaceful morning is now a tainted by this scene I have just walked up to and I am nauseous. After watching these ducks for so many months, I had considered them such peaceful birds. When I walked closer to survey the scene, one of the males started herding the other three back down to the river. 

Since I have been inside, those males have returned and are squawking and screaming outside of my window and traveling to the front of the building and screaming in our windows. I am grateful that my lawn crew is here this morning and assured me they will be taking care of that female duck.  I have such a respect for all things living, I am not sure how to reframe this scene in my mind. I know mating season can get a little dicey however can someone help me to understand this?  I am sure there is a reason, there always is.