What can I say. For some reason Mrs. Mallard abandoned these eggs. There were about a dozen originally but it is not clear if the others hatched or were eaten by a predator. In one egg you can see a little duckling. The teacher whose classroom abuts the nest said that last week when we had a terrible rain storm, this area did not have good drainage and, although the mother continued to sit on the eggs, the nest was almost submerged. Master gardener Ellen says she was at school on Saturday and saw a mother duck at the pond area with 3 babies. Ellen was puzzled because that didn't seem a long enough incubation period from the time the nest was first build. (Instead of the required 28 days, it appeared to be only 2 and a half weeks) So the question remains: Was that "our" mother duck or another from the area? And if it was not the Mrs. Mallard we know, what has become of her?
A sad ending to a story that started with so much promise. The grounds crew has promised to remove the remains after the children have gone home. Telling them the story won't be as devastating as actually seeing the broken shell fragments.
