Our Web-Footed Friends

One of the greatest things of living in Vancouver and surrounding areas (yeah, Surrey) is that being so close to the ocean, there are many little rivulets, creeks and other small bodies of moving water that invite water fowl. For 10 years, the condominium I live in faced onto a large lot of poplar trees. Every summer large pools of water formed from the rain and lack of drainage. There was a pair of mallards that came to that lot every spring and raised their little family there. It was wonderful to see this mother duck proudly leading her clutch of yellow featherballs around the pools teaching them how to scrounge for food and imparting other important duck knowledge. Three years ago, another set of condominiums was built on that land displacing our little feathered family. I don't know where they went; but, I hope they are bringing as much joy to someone else as they did to me.

Yesterday, I was near an old job site of mine that I hadn't visited in nearly 13 years. I was delighted to see that the mallard pairs that had inhabited a small stream there had increased instead of decreasing or disappearing entirely. This is amazing to me as the stream runs between a very busy Canadian Superstore supermarket, skytrain station and other office buildings. In the past 13 years , this area has become busier not slower. Here's to the ducks and their unflagging desire to return home every year bringing with them a gift joy to city dwellers for a few months every year.

Nature doesn't let us down - let's not let her down.