Nature's Way

Two years ago, we had a duck nesting in one of the beds along the front side of our house. For about a month the duck sat there, leaving occasionally, and surviving a run-in with the neighbourhood cat. That duck taught me a little about patience. Then finally in late June, the eggs hatched, and some 7 new ducklings were born. I was away that morning, so I didn’t get to see them hatch. But I did see them when they were dry and fuzzy. That was so cute. Then later that day Mama Duck led her little babies out of the yard (presumably to the pond), and just like that, we never saw them again.

Until this year.

After surveying the neighbourhood for a couple weeks, a duck decided to make its nest in our yard. We believe it’s the either the same one, or one of the hatched ducklings, because the nest is under the same window, in the same square foot of mulch as the one two years ago. I’m not prone to getting attached to animals, but I grew to like this duck. I would talk to/at it while I was working outside, so it would grow accustomed to how my voice sounded and it would be calm around me. And it grew to tolerate me mowing the lawn right near its nest. I even went so far as to give her a name, Quebo (pronounced QUAY-boe). Why that name? Well it doesn’t hold any meaning, it was simply the first to syllables I subconsciously thought of when I decided to name it.

After watching Quebo for a couple weeks, and wondering how many of the 10 eggs would hatch, I came home late from a night out with the guys, and went to bed. When I woke up, it was pouring rain. Worse though, was that scattered about the yard were broken, empty eggshells from the nest. At some point during the night, the nest had been pillaged. I felt kinda sad. My mom even said that earlier that morning, Quebo was standing out in the yard staring at the remains of the nest. Now I don’t know if ducks or any other animals have feelings, but it couldn’t have been a happy moment for the duck.

We thought maybe it was the cat that got into its nest. But when we look at the how the shells were broken and the insides removed, we don’t think a cat would have the anatomy necessary to pull that off. More likely a raccoon, though I’ve never seen one in the neighbourhood. But I guess that’s, as the title says, nature’s way. Some get eaten so that others may survive.

We doubt the Quebo will come back, even though there is enough time left in the year for new ducklings to hatch.

So there you go. There’s my sentimental side.

-Bernier