Ducks in the city

As a brief respite from the often grim task of surfing the 'net, I offer this story found at Cute Overload:

"...Several weeks ago he watched a mother duck choose the cement awning outside his window as the uncanny place to build a nest above the sidewalk... The mother flew down below and started quacking to her babies above. In his disbelief Joel watched as the first fuzzy newborn toddled to the edge and astonishingly leapt into thin air, crashing onto the cement below. He couldn't watch how this might play out. He dashed out of his office and ran down the stairs the sidewalk where the first obedient duckling was stumbling near its mother from the near fatal fall. Joel looked up. The second duckling was getting ready to jump!..."

Baby ducklings, of course, can fall from much greater heights without difficulty (although the cement landing site is a bit unnatural). For the full story and more pix, go to the link.