The return of Fred and Ginger

It's official, spring has arrived in Boise. The ducks are here!

Every year at about this time, mallard ducks show up in our neighborhood. I don't know why, but we have them every year and they always show up two by two, a male and a female together. I love to watch little mallard duck couples wandering through the neighborhood! There are usually several pairs that show up and they all seem to adopt homes in the neighborhood to hang out in for a while. Every year that we've lived here we've had a duck couple move into our backyard for a while. Usually they stick around for a couple of months in the spring and then they find another place to spend their summers.

The arrival of the ducks is always the first real sign of spring to me. I look forward to it every year. The first year that we had a duck couple in our yard the kids decided we needed to name them. We named them Fred and Ginger. So now every year when they ducks return, even if they're not the same two ducks, they become Fred and Ginger. I have no idea if we're getting the same ducks every year or not. I think probably not, I think this years Ginger is a lighter color than last years Ginger, but it is pretty strange every year without fail since we've lived here a pair of ducks has moved into our backyard in March.

In case you weren't around last year for the duck story, last years Ginger actually laid eggs in our landscaping last spring and we had four baby ducks for a while until Ginger decided it was time to take them to a better source of water. It was a huge event in our family last year. You know me and animals, I was pretty glued to those ducks while they were here!

So this morning Shawn was getting ready for work and he came into our room and announced that the ducks have returned! YAY! There's no way to know if these are the same ducks from last year, although its not uncommon for ducks to return to the place they were born and it's also not uncommon for mama ducks to lay eggs in the same place each year. But at the moment there are two ducks hanging out in our backyard.

So in honor of the arrival of the ducks, here is the video I made last year of the duck babies being born. I haven't watched this for a while and I just watched it a few minutes ago and it brought back all the memories of how much fun that was last year. I hope that Ginger decides to start a new family in our yard this year!

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