Sad Duck Story

Last month a duck chose to make her nest and lay eggs in the middle of Keona's play area. I think her decision was made in desperation and in the wee hours of the morning. Before discovering her nest, I found a duck egg lying in the open on the other side of the yard, so perhaps when she built the nest, she was in a hurry. Anyway, even though it wasn't a good place, I was pretty excited. She had 9 eggs in there. I tried, however unsuccessfully, to keep Keona out of the loop on this. I did let the mothers know when they came for playgroup so that everyone would be aware and keep the kids away from the nest. We always spoke in whispers about it and just looked in the general direction. I took pictures of mom and eggs, but only when Keona wasn't around.

One morning I came out to a tragic scene. It had been a particularly cold night and I couldn't resist walking out to check on mother and eggs. What I found broke my heart. I saw several shells on the ground, completely smashed. At first, I was pretty excited because I thought they had hatched. But the nest was eerily silent. Upon closer investigation, I found that mother was gone and all the eggs had been smashed and clearly eaten by some predator. I really almost cried. When my friend Robyn came over with her daughter Maddie, I told her about it and I think this time we went over and looked. The kids continued to play. However, sometime later in the afternoon, Keona amazed me with his perception. He walked over to where the nest had been and looked into it. Then he said, "Duck, eggs, sad...". He has repeated this several times since the event. How did he put all that together? I don't suppose I will be able to play the Santa Clause game with him for too many years....