Duck makes home at hardware store garden center

May 16, 2011|By Robert Marin | KWCH 12 Eyewitness News

(WICHITA, Kan.) — You might not see her hidden among the flowers, but take a close look to see it is no statue or decoration.

nestled in with the Columbine and Dianthus at the Westlake Ace Hardware at Pawnee and Seneca there are more than just blooms and leaves. Behind all the green there is a future family of ducks.

"She shows up early Spring and finds a home in our plants," says store manager Matt Stafford. "I'd seen her wandering around out here a few years ago, then, when I saw her actually make a nest it was kind of surprising."

For the past three years the mother mallard decided the best place for her nest would be the store's garden center.

"I hear probably ten times a day a customer saying 'you know you have a duck in your plants.'" says Stafford.

Stafford does indeed know. He has watched for three years as the mother duck makes her nest, lays her eggs, and then eventually takes her ducklings and moves on. He says she's developed quite a following.

"There's customers that come in every Spring looking for her, asking every Spring if the duck's back." says Stafford.

While she is in the center, garden center staff do warn customers to 'do not disturb'.

"She will puff up a little bit and kind of hiss at you a bit, but she's pretty harmless," says Stafford.

The duck has been nesting at the Pawnee and Seneca store for about five or six weeks. Stafford says she usually sticks around about eight or nine weeks.

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