The adventure of bringing Paquita La Patita and her ducklings back to the lake. Paquita is a mallard duck that started laying eggs on May 14th 2020 in a salad patch on the balcony of our 3rd floor apartment in Konstanz (Lake Constance, Germany). We had 33 wonderful days observing the beginning of the cycle of life of these wonderful creatures and the sequence of events that lead to 8 little ducklings hatching on June 15th. Since our apartment is on the 3rd floor and the duck family had to cross the street to get to the lake, we helped them out to make it safely to the water. Due to the COVID-19 crisis we couldn’t get direct support from our local wildlife rehabilitator, but they instructed us on how to move the family back the water and we used a “duckling elevator” to bring the ducklings down from the third floor. Catching the mother together with the ducklings is definitely something only properly trained people should do. We did our very best to support this Mallard family with the resources and phone support we had access to. This experience was truly exhilarating and definitely a highlight of this very difficult 2020.
27 сен 2024
