My alter ego is writing short photo stories on Instagram. You can follow here.

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Here, as they say, is the rest of the story.

Mabel and Maddie have been molting and stopped laying for a few weeks. We are back to eggs this week, but their regular schedule is a bit off. Usually, their eggs are waiting for me in the morning. But a few times this week, there would be one and later in the day, another.

A few days ago Maddie disappeared mid-morning to the nesting box. I thought to myself, I’ll have to remember to recheck it. I was working at the kitchen table (a change of pace from my office) and a while later, Maddie came up to the open patio door and started making a racket. And trust me, of the two, Maddie’s ability to make a commotion is unmatched by Mabel…or the Danes.

I asked her what she wanted and went out to make sure there weren’t any predators in the area. Then I remembered I was going to check the nesting box. Sure enough, she’d left me an egg (hers are whitish, Mabel’s are blue, and that brown egg is the fake egg I leave in the box). I recovered it and took it into the house. Maddie went about her day.

That’s when I realized she thought of me as the keeper of the eggs.

Ducks are very smart and creatures of habit. So, of course, she expected me to come and get her egg, I always do.

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