First flight

We were delighted to witness a breakthrough this afternoon and a new stage of development.  The ducklings have been practising short hop flights across the garden all day but when the parent ducks flew off to the river this afternoon several of the ducklings tried to follow.

One actually made it over the fence.

Oh my oh my what a lot of quacking ensued.  The remaining 10 ducklings were transfixed to the spot, some quacking for their sibling and we could hear the duckling who had made it over the fence quacking back.  It was tense.

We didn't know if we were about to witness a goodbye to all of the ducklings...so I raced out with my camera. 

But... after about 10 minutes - the brave duckling flew back.  And, the gang were back together.  I've uploaded a before and after photo of this momentous moment as extras.  You'll be able to tell which is which.