Many Ways to Thrive
August 13, 2023 - A Wood Duck among Mallards
The mallards have been very prolific this year. I counted 45 in the marina this week and most of those were youngsters. I went down to the other dock and found another group of ten mallards with six youngsters in their midst. And then I looked closer. One of those young birds smaller with a red eye and yellow feet. He was not a mallard at all, he was a young wood duck!
Wood ducks are typically very skittish birds that prefer to be further from people. I see them down in the coves or up in the trees, but they tend to fly away if I get closer. Mallards on the other hand seem to enjoy living right among the people, walking in the parking lot in the marina and sometimes walking right up to me on the dock. This little wood duck was not only hanging out near the mama mallard, but he also acted like a mallard. He had no skittishness about me at all.
I watched for a while, as the “gang of three” males occasionally harassed the mama and youngsters but otherwise the clan was happy to preen and forage right next to where I was sitting. The little wood duck got picked on a bit by the other mallard youngsters - as siblings will do, but maybe with a growing recognition that he’s smaller than they are. He stayed pretty close to the female mallard and she gave him cover but not too much. My guess, based on behavior, is that this little wood duck has been with the mallard clan since he was very small.
I’ve seen this happen once before. In 2017 there was a young male wood duck that was raised with a group of mallard ducklings. That year I saw the wood duck when he was much younger, but he stayed with that group all summer and in 2018 he even returned to the marina, still comfortable around people even if he was no longer a part of the mallard clan.
This little wood duck swam around, then flew up into the grass to forage. Eventually, he flew back down into the water where everyone was preening.
There was a log in the water near where the mallards were preening on the rocks. Several times I watched the little wood duck pause and look at it. I kept thinking, “it’s ok, you’re a wood duck, you’re supposed to jump up on the log!”. He kept looking at it though the mallards had no interest.
He never did jump up on the log, but it’s only a matter of time. Sometime, maybe soon, he will figure out he’s a wood duck. I wonder how that will and if he will have superpowers learned from the mallards. I wonder if adjusting will be hard or if it will simply be a new adventure. Will his instincts tell him what to do? Will he find other wood ducks and learn from them?
I think we all feel like a wood duck in a world of mallards sometimes. We look around and see beings who look different than us, who are drawn to different things, and move through the world in different ways. Sometimes we see our “log”, that thing that calls so us though it seems to call to no one else around. Eventually, if we are lucky, perhaps we leap up on that log and start to find gifts we didn’t know we had.
Perhaps too, there are gifts we’ve gained from others who were not like us. This unique combination provides so many options in our life if we are able to find our way to those gifts. It’s easy to see the hardships - this little duck jumped out of a tree somewhere along the way and found his way to a mother who could raise him. Maybe he had to find a mother more than once. Sometimes it’s harder to see the gifts - the surrogate parents, teachers, and guides along the way who took us under their wing, the things we learned from those trying situations that forged a new us from our original block of clay.
Sometimes I doubt my own ability to find my way to safety. I am anxious about what the future might bring and whether or not I can handle it. I contort myself to fit in rather than jumping up on that log. Yet day after day I watch creatures great and small find a way to survive and thrive. I watch beings help other beings, those like them and those that are different. Those instincts live in me too and they live in those around me who can help along the way.
We are hard-wired to find community. We are hard-wired to find our way to safety. We are also hard-wired to find the unique gifts we hold inside even when the community around us might not show us the way. What superpowers have I gained from living among others who “aren’t like me”? Can I find a way to bring both my innate and learned gifts to the world together in a new and unique way? Can I let myself trust that innate instinct, that life force within that always moves towards living and thriving?
It feels like a good prayer for the beginning of the day, asking the universe to help me trust that life force, trust in the combination of my innate and learned knowing, trust that life finds a way - just like the little wood duck.
I loved this so much. Rooting like hell for that little wood duck finding his way.
I love your deep look at the behavior of this little duck, sharing a story that most of us will never see! The meditation on the value of sameness versus individuality is relatable and timeless.
Also, what a cutie :)