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In an abandoned Flicker nest
in the far north of Canada eight baby ducklings
are hatching.
When they're day or two old their mother signals them to jump out of the nest.
They don't have feathers yet. They drop like stones.
They bounce up and follow their mother to a nearby pond.
They already know how to swim. Buffleheads are diving ducks.
Tthis is the scariest time of a young duck's life.
She is chilly, flightless
and bite-sized.
Their mother shows the ducklings how to find food at the bottom of the pond.
The ducklings get bigger.
Their feathers grow in.
When they're almost full-grown their mother flies away. It's time to shed her
worn-out feathers.
New ones will grow in. Until they do, she has to hide.
The ducklings experiment with flying.
They flap their wings and run along the top of the water.
Eventually they take to the air.
When the weather gets cold the ducklings head for a warmer place.
Somehow they know when to leave and which way to go.
The ducklings fly hundreds of miles from the wilds
of Canada to the California coast.They fly at night
and rest during the day.
They find plenty of food in the shallow edges of San Francisco Bay.
Lots of people live by the Bay. That doesn't bother the ducklings.
In California the ducklings meet beautiful black-and-white ducks:
their fathers, whom they've never seen.
All the Buffleheads fly back to Canada in the spring.
The ducklings are now one year old.
Back at the pond
their feathers fall out and new ones grow in.
The boys get their grown-up outfit: black-and-white
like their fathers'.
The girl ducks look the same as before. They hunt around the pond for empty
woodpecker nests
where they can lay their eggs next year.
When it gets cold again, they all go back to California.
They find partners.
They dive together. Their feathers seal out water.
Fluffy down underneath keeps them warm.
Spring arrives. The partners are two years old.
They fly north to Canada to start a family.
The boy ducks do a dance that means "Let's have ducklings!"
They puff out their head feathers.
"Bufflehead" is probably short for "buffalo head."
Once the eggs are incubating in the nest
the father flies away. He needs new feathers.
He'll rejoin the mother later, in California.
The mother takes care of the ducklings till they're big enough to fly.
Then she goes away to grow new feathers.
In the fall the ducklings know it's time to go south.
At six months of age they're on their own.
They don't need parents anymore.
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