Ducks return to customary spot at senior living complex
Seven ducklings take a break outside of Broadmore Senior Living on their way to the water.
Stanley Strothers, Broadmore maintenance director, helps direct the ducklings.
Another mother waits for her eggs to hatch.
A mother duck keeps an eye on her brood as the birds head toward freedom.
Harry Funk / Staff Stanley Strothers, Broadmore maintenance director, helps direct the ducklings.
You’ve heard of the swallows of Capistrano. Let’s talk about the ducks of Broadmore.
A degree of daffiness occurs this time of year when a mother duck or two decide to lay their eggs in the courtyard of Broadmore Senior Living at Lakemont in South Fayette Township.
Staff members help the mama mallards take care of the ducklings until they’re ready to fly the coop, or more accurately, waddle to the nearest waterway.
Getting them pointed in the right direction can be a challenge, as was the case Friday morning.
Led by maintenance director Stanley Strothers and to a chorus of quacks, staffers guided a gaggle of ducks – actually, that would be a flock, brace, raft, team or paddling of ’em – from their temporary home of a cozy kiddie pool in the courtyard toward waterfowl freedom.
Neither the mom nor her brood, though, seemed to be 100 percent sure of the plan, as they often decided to backtrack along the route took them through a storage hallway, then back outside, past a gleeful gathering of Broadmore residents watching their progress.
“They’re very much like people, watching out for each other,” Fran Kolodziek, originally from Carnegie, said as she observed the ducklings take a break on their trek. “They’re huddling there all together, like nothing is going to come get us.”
Amy Shonts, Broadmore executive director, said some residents have had a, well, bird’s-eye view of the ducklings’ development.
“There are a bunch of rooms along the courtyard, and the residents have been watching them out their windows the whole time,” she explained. “And now this bunch of ducks is ready to go.”
This marks the fifth or sixth year that ducks have selected the courtyard as a great place to raise their kids, at least for the short term.
“We just figured it’s so close to the lake over there,” Strothers said about a nearby body of water off Lakeview Drive, “this is a great stop-off for them. We like seeing them every year, and they seem to love Broadmore.”