This spring Steve Stuttard reunited with an unusual friend: Mrs. Mallard, a duck that nested in the flowerpot on his ninth-story apartment balcony in Manchester, UK, last year. Upon her return, she laid 11 eggs in the same flowerpot filled with grass.
"I know ducks have strange routines when it comes to nesting, and if they have a successful site, they will return to it," says Stuttard, a bird lover since childhood.
Stottard used skills learned in the Navy to create a jackstay (稳定锁) with a red rope and a bucket. Those skills came in handy last year when he quickly and safely transported Mrs. Mallard's seven ducklings (小鸭子) down once they hatched.
"Getting the ducklings down isn't as simple as a ride in the elevator. It's crucial not to hurt the bond between the ducklings and Mrs. Mallard," Stuttard says.
However, Stuttard faced more of a challenge this year. He had four additional eggs and high winds. He also had a new global audience heavily invested in the fate of the ducklings.
Emma Newman, Stuttard's daughter, updates about his preparation for this year's nesting, which took off on Twitter. "I've been absolutely bombarded with messages,'' Newman says. "I actually can't keep up because thousands of people are following the story. Whenever I tweet about it, I get several hundred replies a second sometimes."
On Tuesday morning when two ducklings poked (探出) their heads out of the flowerpot, the wind was awful. Stuttard waited and kept watching. Fortunately, late in the afternoon, Mrs. Mallard finally made her move. This was Stuttard's clue to get to work.
Stuttard picked Mrs. Mallard up and threw her off the balcony, and she flew off. Immediately, he placed the ducklings in the bucket one by one. Then, he used his jackstay to carefully lower the bucket. "Within two, three minutes from when I walked out on the balcony, Mrs. Mallard was swimming away with her family," Stuttard says.
