As I was walking through the Volksgarten in Vienna, I was a bit surprised to encounter three ducklings, living in a fountain along with two male adult Mallards. The city had constructed a ramp so that the ducks could enter and exit the fountain and a couple of plywood platforms, where the ducklings would rest and play.
Obviously there was a mother duck involved in giving birth to these ducklings, which were no longer babies, but I did not see her at all during any of my three visits to see the ducks.
Although I had only a point-and-shoot camera with a small zoom lens, the fountain limited the movement of the ducklings and I was able to move in close for some pretty good shots, which show the personality of the little ducklings.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
Absolutely gorgeous photos and background story observation. Sounds very 21st century…. that is the parenting arrangements…… and you saw it first in the bird world!! And the babies look as happy as Larry. Fabulous. .
Nice Mike. Reminds me of the ducklings we saw in the middle of Paris this time last year.
It’s amazing how wild creatures can thrive in urban centers. By the way, have you exhausted your Paris photos? You seem to come up with new ones all of the time. (Paris is one of my favorite cities.)
Well, I took about 8 or 9 hundred so I suppose I still have some usable ones left. I’d love to go back to Paris sometime but it’s a brief trip to Iceland in June then Scotland again in September and we are tentatively planning Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, Seville and Marrakesh for next summer.
Interesting. I wonder what they find to eat in that fountain.
It looks like they were nibbling on some of the lilypads or whatever it was that was growing in the fountain. Perhaps the park staff is feeding them. They certainly looked healthy and happy.
It really is amazing how wild creatures adapt to unnatural surroundings – they are survivors.
Aww, one of those ducks looks like it’s actually smiling. 🙂 Nice shot.
Thanks. The ducklings definitely had lots of personality (and I too thought that one was smiling or laughing).
[…] Ducklings in Vienna […]
I was pretty sure that foreign travel wouldn’t suppress your photos. These little guys are pretty cute.