On wood ducks and life

The Aussie Wood Ducks

The Aussie wood duck's call is a nasal type of sound

Within their range in numbers they abound

You even see them in parks of the town

The males distinctive in their grey and brown,

The brown spotted female the less colourful of the pair

within their range these water birds not rare

Near farm dams, swamp lands and Townpark lake

You see them search for food the female and her drake

In late Winter and early Spring they nest in hollow log or hole in trunk of tree

And nice to see them with their young family

In or near water in prime of the Spring

When wildflowers bloom and nesting birds chirp and sing

With four or five young in Spring their numbers multiply

These Aussie wood ducks of humans not that shy.

~ Francis Duggan

In the above photo these lovely adult wood ducks were the very proud parents of 24 ducklings whom they vigilantly protected. On the day that it poured rain (about 60ml) in Mildura (most rain in 13 years) one delightful duckling was left behind due to being saturated and just couldn't stand on his feet so we had to rescue him.

In the photo below you can see my son holding him ever so lovely and a few hours later we returned him to his family who welcomed him back with open wings.

Straight after we the children returned the first duckling, miss Grace discovered another almost dead. After being cuddled and huddled (photo below) the young duckling amazingly came back to life, this was such a delightful moment. We returned her a couple of hours later, the mother pecked at her beak and then pushed her back in with the rest of her siblings.

How priceless are these moments in life?

After hearing of a sudden death back at our home town of a man that we knew very well, I am once again reminded of how quickly a life can be snatched away and how today is all I really have to be all that God wants me to be, to love, share, appreciate, smile, care, and shine in the darkness.

 "Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For,

“All people are like grass,

and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;

the grass withers and the flowers fall,

 but the word of the Lord endures forever"

1 Peter 1:22-25