There are some definite advantages to living so close to the woods. We're at the end of a private drive, past a little family cemetery, surrounded on 3 sides by open space (in Ohio that mean "lots of trees"). There's a little creek that runs year-round just down the hill, and we can sit on our front porch and see deer, muskrats, rabbits, squirrels and mallards.

Way back in March, I came into the dining room after hearing something hit the window (we have dumb birds around here) and saw this lovely couple in the front yard.

Senor Pato

His lovely senora

A few weeks later, we were working in the yard, cleaning up debris, etc. from the winter, and the lady duck was hanging around, just out of reach, but watching everything we were doing and quacking, which I thought was pretty strange behavior from a typically wild animal. I wondered if she had a nest somewhere, but I didn't see anything as we were pruning, etc.

Then, a few weeks later when our landscaper was laying down new mulch, she was startled and flew up into his face, revealing her nest right underneath our dining room window, behind a plant.

Here she is sitting on the nest. She sat there for so long that we thought for sure the eggs weren't going to hatch. Apparently, ducks will sit on unfertilized eggs until they rot.

Yesterday morning, I awoke at about 5 am to the sound of a baby duck, it chirped for a good 30 seconds, and then it was gone.

When I got up, I checked the nest, and this is what I found:

Looks like two of the eggs hatched, one didn't make it. The mama must have taken them right down to the creek to get them swimming. I just wish I could have seen them.

Look what else I found:

Another one of the joys of living in the woods.