Most people walk into Home Depot looking for things like tools, lumber, gardening supplies, and bathroom or kitchen fixtures. They don’t walk into Home Depot looking for a duck. That’s right. I said duck.
Yet that’s exactly what I did.
This past Wednesday (June 1st) I sat down at 6pm to watch the local evening news. Amidst all the stories of the devastation caused by tornadoes in the South (and one in Massachusetts), car accidents, arrests, etc. there was one story that caught my attention.
The Hope Depot Duck.
It seemed as though a female duck wandered into the Home Depot in Bangor, Maine (for the second year in a row) and set up shop right smack in the middle of the store’s Garden Center. She picked a nice spot on a waist high shelf among some potted flowers, built herself a nice cozy little nest, and laid her eggs.
The Bangor news crew interviewed one of the women that worked in the Garden Center and she said that not only was this was the second time the duck has done this, but she didn’t seem bothered by the noise of the cars outside, the equipment, or the people inside the store. She just went about her business like nothing was out of the ordinary.
Employees in the store have made signs asking customers not to disturb their resident duck and even went as far as to run yellow caution tape around the area the duck is residing in.
Now, even though I saw this story on the news and saw the video recorded from the scene, I had to see it for myself. So, the following day, my mother and I hopped into the car and drove the 90 miles from our house to Bangor. 90 miles just to see a duck in the Home Depot Garden Center.
What? People have traveled greater distances for stranger reasons!
Upon arriving at Home Depot I went straight to the Garden Center. After all, I was there to see the duck not shop for lumber!
I rounded a corner and spotted the yellow tape that marked the duck’s nesting area. And true to the news report, it was smack in the middle of the Garden Center. At first I couldn’t see the duck because she had piled so much hay around herself to make her nest but then I saw her move and I couldn’t believe it. There was actually a duck nesting in the Garden Center. Not only that but like the news report said, she actually didn’t seem bothered by anyone or anything around her. She was just going about her daily business, fluffing the nest, checking on her eggs, and doing what ducks normally do when they‘re nesting.
Of course I had my camera with me (what good photographer doesn‘t?!). I just couldn’t pass up an opportunity like this. I clicked off a few frames (you can see one here, and another here) before my actions drew the attention of a few other people who didn’t know anything about the duck and had come there to actually shop. I even had a woman run up beside me and ask what was going on before she noticed the duck on her own and immediately pulled out her cell phone to snap a few pictures saying “Oh my God, that‘s so cute!”.
It may have been a long trip for something some may deem trivial, but to me, it was worth it.
It just goes to show you that there can be peace and tranquility, new life in the midst of chaos, whether it be in the world or in the Garden Center of your local Home Depot.
Until next time.
Keep your eyes open, folks. You never know what you may find!
[^_^]
~A.M.
Audrey May Photography 