There are an awful lot of pictures on this page,
so please be patient while they all load!

What a blast we had with our fuzzy little friends!
They were born on Saturday, May 13th, 2000 at our home in San Diego,
and were swimming with mom in the pool the very next day.
Here they are in all their newborn duckiness.
Quack!

Here are the ducklings at a little over 2 weeks old.
See how quickly they grew!

It was a heart wrenching decision, but mom and her ducklings
were relocated by Wildlife Assist Volunteers on Friday, June 9th 2000,
just one day shy of their 4 week birthday.
You can see by the two photos I took that day how large they
had become, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep
the yard and pool clean.  With the house on the market, we had
to make the hard choice to find them other accommodations.
As it turns out, we were told that the chlorine in the swimming
pool they loved so much was actually harmful to them. 

They were taken to a Project Wildlife sponsored facility,
maintained primarily for mallard duck moms and babies.
They didn't have quite as beautiful surroundings,
but they were safe and cared for.  We missed them every day
and visited them in their new home.

When we went to visit the ducklings on Sunday, June 25th 2000,
we got to watch their "release".
They were moved to a much larger area with other ducks and geese.
Although they were still protected by a fence, once they could fly
they would be free to come and go as they chose.
We'd like to take this opportunity to thank Terri
for providing such a loving and caring environment for them.

This first picture was taken while they were still in their
small enclosure.  It shows how large they had become,
and how beautifully their feathers had come in.
Momma is actually on the left!

Here they are entering the larger enclosure
for the first time.  What a handsome bunch!

A family portrait in their new living quarters.
You can see momma smack in the center of the photo,
with all of her ducklings on the left.

The neat thing was that the 7 ducks on the right were orphans,
about one week older than our guys.  They would now adopt
our momma, and learn what they needed to know from her.
Everybody won!

Shortly after our last visit to the ducks, Terri phoned
to let us know that they had flown off over a period
of a couple of weeks.  All 10 ducklings survived,
which would almost certainly not have been the case
if they had been born in the wild.