A mamma Mallard and her brood of fuzzy ducklings blocked traffic Thursday morning trying to cross a St. Louis street. Motorists called the local bird sanctuary to have the birds removed to a safer area.
St. Louis's KSDK 5 posted a photo gallery of the roundup, which was led by the World Bird Sanctuary's Walter Crawford.
Seeing these pictures reminds me of watching ducks near the Elizabeth River in Chesapeake, Va. Every spring, a mamma duck would show up, parading her 12 or 13 ducklings back and forth across the street. A few weeks after they first showed up, she would have slightly larger, more coordinated ducklings, albeit several fewer in number. And so on. As the ducklings grew larger, there were less of them. I never saw any squashed ducklings in the roadway, so I'm assuming it was one of several cats slinking around in the bushes that led to their demise.
At any rate, it's nice to see that in St. Louis, motorists make way for ducklings. Hat tip to Brett!
Photo credit: Irina Moscalev/Shutterstock