A Duckling Story

The night we arrived in Hilo, we found a newly hatched duckling in the courtyard in the hotel.  There were no signs of any other ducks, babies or parents.  We asked at the front desk to see if there were ducks or if they had advice about what to do with an abandoned duckling.  They said they had not seen any ducks around, but the gardener in the morning could take the duckling to a park.

I sat down on the ground, and the tiny thing, who was wobbly and couldn't walk well, snuggled into the crook of my leg for warmth.  It started pouring rain, and Conor and I were both unable to leave him alone in the night to die.  I took him in and fed him sugar water, and he did seem to get stronger, eventually trying to get free instead of lying calmly with us.  The next morning, Gabrian burst in on me in the bathroom with my phone.  Mom was calling to tell me that there was a mother duck with three ducklings in the courtyard.  I ran our little guy down and added him to the family, and we hoped for the best.

We don't know what became of our little guy, but the following day, there was no further sign of mama duck, but there were two unaccompanied ducklings remaining.  They must have heard that Conor was the duck whisperer because they came to join him in the swimming pool and continued following him around.  Cute little babies.  Hope they make it.

Also found the cutest, tiniest lizard ever.

Although no one wanted to put his thumb in the picture for comparison, 

this giant bumblebee was as big as the lizard.