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Oh my goodness, what a tender sight it was.

I was wandering around a local pond with my youngest daughter when we saw this Pacific Black Duck behaving a little strangely – we quietly watched and waited. And then we spotted the reason.

This egg-sized duckling was zapping about in the reeds. It still has its temporary egg tooth at the end of its bill. They use their egg tooth to scratch and scrape and poke their way out of the egg.

The duckling was darting around so quickly that I wasn’t sure if 1/1600th of a second would be fast enough to capture it. Indeed, it often wasn’t. Pardon the ‘indeed’, it’s a wonder I haven’t been saying ‘apropos’ or ‘mon dieu’ as I’ve just finished reading Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo‘. Trying to focus on the duckling’s minuscule eye was pretty interesting.

You can see from the swirling water in each of the photographs above, that the duckling was paddling and swirling pretty rapidly. Its markings are already very similar to an adult blacky. The distinctive dark line through its eye is a helpful diagnostic feature.

And then this tiny bundle of fluff paddled across to the shallowest water, raised itself up and shook. Its tiny wings haven’t yet sprouted but if they had it would have stretched them in the same way we see adult blackies raise themselves up and shake their wings.

As I was watching this little one disappear in and out of the reeds I saw the adult bird looking across the pathway and I heard some very tiny cheeps. There, in the long grass were four or five more ducklings. They were alone which was puzzling. The adult bird raced towards them and the little family scurried back to the pond.

Within a couple of days three duck-related things happened. I photographed this little series, I received a brilliant email from Regional Victorians Opposed to Duck Shooting and the following quote popped into my inbox at the end of a Wordsmith message: “When a man wantonly destroys one of the works of man we call him vandal. When he wantonly destroys one of the works of god we call him a sportsman.” Joseph Wood Krutch, writer and naturalist (25 Nov 1893-1970). Now is a good time to send another note to the Premier and your local MP. We are getting there, the tide is definitely turning and hopefully little ducklings like this one will soon be safe from shooters.

If you have a moment I’d love to know which duckling shot you find most evocative.

Happy birding, stay safe, Kim

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