If you're looking for a sign that normal life is returning, look no further than the faces of these kids, who had a great time today helping our biologists band egg salvage ducklings at the Rancho Esquon Egg Salvage Hatchery in Durham.

Egg Salvage is a partnership with CWA, Rancho Esquon (and other federally permitted hatcheries) and farmers who let us collect wild duck nests from their crop fields prior to necessary work that might destroy the nests. And it's a terrific opportunity to educate folks about the needs of wildlife, and to allow children (and parents, too!) to handle ducklings that are about to resume life as the wild animals that nature intended them to be.

The kids did a great job banding the 5-week-old mallards and releasing them into beautiful wetlands on Saturday.

Huge thanks to Sitka Gear  for an ecosystem grant that's supporting our Egg Salvage and Delayed Wheat Harvest programs this year!