Birthday Present

We are blessed to have the Little Harpeth River in our backyard and have an abundance of wildlife.

Late in Sept. we noticed a white duck swimming around and sitting on a log. After a week, I went down to the bank to get a closer look. I was surprised as it swam up to me and seemed friendly.

After checking my bird books and not finding it, I called a park service nearby . They informed me they thought it was a pet ( not wild ) peking duck. They told me to enjoy it while I could as a prediator would probably kill it.

Well, Quackers (as we named it) is still around . He waddles up our stone steps early in the morning for his breakfast of tomatoes, cottage cheese and scrambled eggs.

Quackers follows us around, eats out of our hands and comes swimming down the river when I call him and flies upon the bank. He adores my grandson.

Three weeks ago we had a heavy rain and the river flooded. He couldn't swim against the strong current and ended up over a mile downstream. I saw him several times perched high in a tree. I took food to him over the weeks as he tried to swim upstream and finally one day he was gone. Brokenhearted, I headed home.

He had been missing for three weeks when at the end of January (on my birthday) I looked out my window and their he was sitting on the stone steps waiting for his food. It was the best gift I could have received. We don't know how long he will be around but we treasure the time he spends with us.