Ducks nest in Courtyard again

Amodhya Samarakoon

A mallard drake and hen rest among the Blue Scilla blooms in the perennial beds of Lily Courtyard. The pair come back to St. Paul Academy each year to lay their eggs, and the Maintenance staff does their best to transplant the nest to a safe space. “The ducks are adorable and people shouldn’t bother them,” sophomore Tabeer Naqvi said.

Patrick Commers, Arts Critic

The melting of snow and rising temperatures only means one, exciting thing: the ducks have returned to the Lily Courtyard.

It has become a yearly occurrence that the same two ducks enter into the courtyard and nest and lay their eggs among the tiny blue Scilla flowers and wood chips.

Ducks are known to nest every single year at the same location, so it would be strongly inferred that these are the same ducks that return each year.
Many students admire their beauty and watch them from the windows as they waddle through the courtyard.

“They [the ducks] are adorable and people shouldn’t bother them,” said sophomore Tabeer Naqvi, who recently saw the ducks in the courtyard.

There have been some issues with the ducks before. Maintenance workers regularly have to move the eggs of the ducks because some students have tampered with the eggs in the past, because they are traditionally laid right by the entrance to Davern Commons.

St. Paul Academy and Summit School welcomes the ducks, but it does put some on edge that students will either scare them or take the eggs. Either way, when students are brave enough to go out and experience the new found warmth, they can admire the school’s cute, chubby and feathered friends.