All ducklings must be accompanied by an adult

An early morning, post work, walk through the park presented us with an amazing opportunity to see ducks teaching their ducklings to feed. I could talk about this all day but, in the interests of not boring you to tears, here are the highlights.

Arriving at the pond, a very large duck watched us closely from the back of a bench, somewhere I have never seen a duck before. Shortly ater, another duck appeared beside us, checked us out and flapped its wings... then a raft of ducklings appeared from the undergrowth! When they had followed the food far enough, the distant duck flew over and the parents called to the ducklings, they replied and swam towards their legal guardians. A bit of herding was required to get them ashore, then they were guided around the park for a while before getting back in the water further down the pond.

There are many pictures from this story but I like this one because it shows the parent caring but not interfering in the ducklings progress. I was privilaged to be so close to this and get to shoot it, a really constructive start to the day before I went to bed.

I have no idea about ducks, so I can't name the breed but you can educate me by leaving comments if you wish.