Are You My Mother?

The other day we had a little excitement on our land. As we were out at the house site we saw what we believe is a Blue Heron flying towards us. Previous to this we had only seen it one time and that was down at the marsh. We watched where it went and saw it settle across from our home.

Austin then gestured to me from a distance to let me know there were actually two! There was one over at the marsh, plus the one by the house. Cool, I thought, as I drove slowly down the drive past the marsh.

As I slowly cruised down the drive I looked out my window and suddenly I realized that beside the road walking along was the cutest little duckling!

I stopped my van and looked around and couldn't see any mother. We sat watching for a while and this little one wandered off into the marsh. We kept watching as it settled quietly into the grass. Then we saw the mother come up over the marsh and start heading in a whole other direction.


We kept an eye on the situation and she was calling and the wee babe wasn't anwering. Just sitting all huddled up scared looking.

Once the mother headed up over the road, away from the marsh, into the forested area behind my van I decided to take my chances. It was rather scary, because I didn't know if these heron were like swans. I have heard swans can kill you with their wings! My heart was pounding rapidly but I knew there was a good chance this baby wouldn't find its mother and I knew that my van had probably started the problem by driving between the two of them.

I went out to the marsh and using my sweater, I picked up the cute little baby. He tried to peck me a couple times and then settled as I carried him out to the road. I put him down on the road behind my van, because the mother had gone in that direction and I figured she might come back and find him on the road.

As I stepped away from him to take a picture, he looked up at me like the baby bird in the classic story Are You My Mother? and lifted up his little wings for a moment, as if to say, "Are you my mother?"

As I backed away, he stood there looking at me. I got back into the van and moved the van forward. When I looked again, he was gone. The children said he went into the forested area. Right after that, as we sat there the mother appeared again, from the forested area and took off past the front of my van. How frustrating!! Again she was heading away from her baby.

During this whole time I could hear the mother calling and the father responded. He came to the marsh and they were calling to either the baby or each other. Finally, I decided to creep out of there because there was nothing I could do. The hard thing was that I was driving down the road and the mother kept getting pushed further away because of wanting to stay away from my van. I really hope they found each other again!
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