It is hard to believe, but our little ducks are really growing up.

As you can see from their wing span, they are very close to being adult size. 

They even took their first flight this morning - about 3 feet...

Unfortunately, we suffered a little tragedy with the ducks a few weeks ago.

Some critter got to the ducks in their kennel in the middle of the night and was able to get one out. We are not sure what it was, but there are a lot of suspects, including area coyotes, owls, possoms, and other critters.

In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to your favorite wildlife preservation organization.

The ducks did very well during their first big thunderstorm.

There is a tarp over half of their kennel/coop, but not enough to keep them dry during a big storm. But  then ducks don't really like or need to be dry. And from I have learned so far, they like to stay outside most of the time, even in bad weather. The main reason they need housing is to protect them from predators.

The ducks are getting big, so we figured it was about time that they learned how to swim.

We'll see if the saying is true - if you lead a duck to water, can you make him swim?

Of course, leading them to the water was the hard part. Once I got to the pond and coaxed them into the water, they were more than happy to get their feet wet.

As Mark Twain said, 'If you should rear a duck in the heart of the Sahara, no doubt it would swim if you brought it to the Nile.'

Even with their new pen, the ducks like to get out and get some exercise some time.

We took them for a nice walk today:

Duck Walk (video)

Here is a neat video of my ducks I made with my dad:

I Want A New Duck

My ducks are named Sunny, Bandit, Twinke Toes, and Batman.

Most parents would probably have to be a little crazy to let their kids bring home the classroom pet. Sure, it might be fun for one night or a weekend, but bringing home pets to keep and raise?

I'm surprisingly permissive when it comes to my kids and pets. I guess that is because I didn't have many pets growing up. So we have had frogs, hermit crabs, hamsters, and finally moved up to a dog this year.

And now we have a house full of ducks.