When everyone was being bored in their homes, seeing no one new besides their family or friends they were in quarantine with, Twitter user Johanna Kolerski-Bezerra had quite an interesting guest. A nesting duck mother chose her 7th-floor balcony to lay her eggs. Kolerski-Bazerra’s apartment is on a block near Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London, and it’s quite a surprise that a duck would choose such an urbanized area to kay her eggs, especially when it’s 7 stories up.
h/t: IFLSience
The 1st #lockdown wasn’t too bad for us ‘cause we had a wonderful guest, A #Duck nesting on our balcony. This week, she came back! @DickKingSmith @Natures_Voice pic.twitter.com/fmZM8zfGNd
— Johanna Kolerski-B. (@JohannaKoBe) February 25, 2021
Kolerski-Bazerrawas surprised by this unexpected guest that she even named the bird Carmen. This was during the first lockdown that London was going through, but then the next year on the second lockdown, Carmen came back and this time brought a male mallard duck, which is supposed to be her birth partner. Soon after that mother duck laid an egg, which was still very surprising to the homeowners because of the location of their apartment.
What makes this story extraordinary is the location. We live on the 7th floor, in the dense urban area at the edge of the Olympic park. @DickKingSmith @Natures_Voice pic.twitter.com/vHU1ggP6cv
— Johanna Kolerski-B. (@JohannaKoBe) February 25, 2021
Despite a few misgivings the second time around, Kolerski-Bezerra allowed Carmen to reclaim her nesting spot and decided to document the whole process on Twitter. As seen in the pictures she shared, mother duck prepared the nesting material with leaves from the balcony’s fake foliage screening and feathers from her own body to keep the eggs warm while incubating. It took six weeks for the eggs to begin to hatch, initiating the complicated process of getting the newborn ducklings back onto level ground and to an appropriate water source for their survival.
Trying to get the ducks and ducklings out of the balcony was quite a challenge, and for that two volunteers from the Swan Sanctuary, Gill & Andy, came to help, where they made sure the duck family was brought to the nearest pond, Waterglade, in East Village
We managed to get most of them down to the pond pic.twitter.com/U2dXu1bte6
— Johanna Kolerski-B. (@JohannaKoBe) February 25, 2021