The Gary Allan Learning Centre Ducks

At the Gary Allan Learning Centre in Burlington there is a camera set up in their courtyard to live-stream something unusual, special, and very sweet. They are livestreaming a momma mallard duck who is nesting and looking after her nearly dozen eggs.

Various broods of ducklings have made the school’s courtyard their home for about a decade. The school calls it an inspiring symbol of intelligence, survival and team work, that their resident female Mallard duck returns each spring to lay her eggs in the safety of one the interior courtyards of the school.

Turns out that being in the courtyard offers protection for the nest from predators such as foxes, coyotes and even other rival ducks. The mother lays her eggs in the same nest each year, typically laying 8-12 eggs each time, knowing that she will have to rely on the help of humans to escort her babies to the water once they hatch. but also a learning opportunity for students at the centre.

That leads to another fantastic experience for the school; what they have called the Annual Duck Walk. After hatching, and taking a day to ready themselves, the mother duck taps on a door of the school and the whole family begin an early morning, escorted, 150 meter journey through the school hallways and down to the neighboring creek, which is the safest time of day to avoid encounters with other animals.

It’s a wonderful tradition that has developed at the school, and a benefit to this mother duck, and possibly another as at least two mother’s have been discovered using the space. There’s no telling if the second is an offspring of the original or not, but it’s nice to think it has become a family tradition.

Source: https://bit.ly/3MPYM6k