I woke up this morning to find Mr. and Mrs. Mallard sitting under my birdbath in the side yard. It's spring!!!
About 10 years ago I had 5 ducks, 6 chickens 2 Peking geese 2 rabbits 3 cats and a dog. Every spring around this time we would have Mr. and Mrs. Mallard come over in the morning and spend the day with the ducks in the kiddie pool we had sunken into the ground in our side yard. We always knew spring was here when they showed up. Well... it's years later and the animals are all gone and I've even moved to a house up the street...and those mallards show up here still every year...Now in MY yard. weird huh? So every morning I make sure I open a window and give them some bread or cereal or whatever I have laying around. They sit in the puddles at the end of my driveway occasionally sauntering out of the way for a passing car. I love that they still show up. It reminds me of happy times. We even had a mama and 5 ducklings stuck in our fenced in back yard a couple years ago. That was new, never had that before. I have no idea how they got in or where they come from.
On a similar note we also have bumblebees in our kitchen around the same time that the ducks show up. That's been going on here in my house since before I was born. ( I live in the house my grandparents built) Every year one will show up banging into the kitchen window trying frantically to get out. We just open the window and let them go. Sometimes we have 2 or 3. The first spring my husband and I lived here I came home from work and listened to him tell of how he found a huge bumblebee in the kitchen so he killed it....I was absolutely horrified! Of course he had no idea what the bumblebees meant or that they are a spring tradition....He found out and I am happy to say that no more bumblebees are killed at my house. They are let out like they're supposed to be. Happy spring!