Mama wood duck and her babies

After leaving their nest, our wood duck family swam for a bit and then walked out of the pond through my neighbor's yard and were not seen again for awhile.

Then, one day, that same neighbor - Judy Voigt - was able to capture a few pictures of Skler, our mama duck and her babies swimming by her shoreline.  Due to the high number of ducklings with her, we can be pretty sure it is the same family.   These pictures were taken at the end of June. So excited to see them swimming around!  Thank you, Judy!

Here she is, from a distance, carefully watching over her 17 babies.

Adorable, right?

A close up of mama, some of her ducklings
and a whole bunch of painted turtles.

Next year, I hope to have some sort of camera inside the duck house for a whole new experience!
Happy Summer!