It was an overcast Saturday afternoon at Okoboji. Eight ducklings and their mom swam to the Maui mat tied to our dock, where they joined our daughter, Megan, no more than a few feet away.
And there they all sat together, Megan, her eight ducklings, and their mom, for at least half an hour. The rest of the family watched in awe from the cottage porch about 40 feet away.
The ducks seemed not a bit concerned by the human sitting a few feet away. They just went about their business as their mom began preening, and they followed suit.
Megan was thrilled to serve as a silent hostess at close range.
Preening, it turns out, is a necessary, frequent activity for ducks. They have a gland that produces oil, which they spread over their feathers through preening. The oil causes the water to bead up and roll off when they swim rather than soaking into their feathers and weighing them down. The preening also keeps their feathers clean and in place, which aids in flight.
It was a kind of silent communion between wildlife and humans as an unexpected comfort emerged between them when one might have departed in fright or the other moved too fast and scared her little friends away. The awe of the situation was in what happened near our shoreline, and in the fact that not a word was spoken.
It was as good as a Fourth of July weekend afternoon can get.
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