On the Way to Work This Morning…

While on the way to work this morning I came upon a couple of vehicles stopped in the middle of King Ave West just across the street from Fuddruckers.  During the morning commute this is one of the busiest streets in the west end of Billings with 3 lanes in both directions.  Thankfully, it was only about 7:20am so the traffic was just beginning to pick up.  Of course, my first thought was that there had been an accident so I slowed to see if everyone was OK or if they needed any help.  When I got closer I saw the real reason they stopped.   Nestled behind the left rear wheel of the first vehicle was a mother Mallard duck with 7 or 8 tiny ducklings.  The mother decided that she wanted to get across King Avenue with her ducklings and chose that time of the morning to make an attempt.  When I figured out what was going on I parked my car and turned on my hazard lights to help keep oncoming traffic from squishing us or the ducks.

Needless to say, the ducks were pretty upset with the whole situation and would not come out from underneath the car for anything. To encourage them to come out from under the vehicle I grabbed my tripod and extended one of the legs and gently shooed them safely to the side of the road.  Unfortunately the oncoming traffic kept me from being able to get a photo of the whole event. Nevertheless, I am grateful that people stopped.

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