Cheep!

16 Oct 2006

I was down by the river again today and spotted a pair of ducks with a tiny little chick in tow. The parents were steaming along and somehow the little chick was furiously keeping up with them, until 3 other ducks started coming too close for comfort. The parents immediately chased them away, then kept chasing them. The intruding ducks took to the air, the parents followed, and that was that... the chick was all alone.

Poor little guy furiously paddled around in big circles for a while, cheep-cheep-cheeping as loud as it could for the parents to return, but without success. So it paddled around a bit more, and I wondered if the parents had somehow abandoned their chick. It couldn't have been more than a day or two old it was so small. It paddled along the edge, hidden from view, but I followed the cheeps and tried to keep an eye out for any predators. Still the little chick cheep'ed and paddled.

Maybe 5 or more minutes later (seemed like ages!) I saw a pair of ducks fly in and land about 10-15 metres up-stream. I thought they might be the parents returning, but they didn't seem to be looking for anything, so I began to really wonder what would happen to the fluffy little chick. - Eventually, through a combination of the parents casually paddling in roughly the right direction and the chick cheeping away desperately, they all found each other, and all was right with the world!

Awah!

But what irresponsible parents! Terrible I tell you, just terrible!

[edit 02/03/07 :: submitted to Photo Friday Alone]

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