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Mother duck returns to this hospital’s hallways every spring

Posted at 7:16 PM, May 20, 2019
and last updated 2019-05-20 21:19:55-04

Staffers and patients at an upstate New York hospital are treated annually to an adorable parade of ducklings, whose mother escorts them down the hallways.

“Every year, without fail, a mama duck chooses one of the enclosed courtyards at our M.M. Ewing Continuing Care Center to lay her eggs and take care of her babies,” The University of Rochester Thompson Health wrote on Facebook last week. “She lets us know when she’s ready to go by tapping on the glass, and this morning, it was time for this annual rite of spring.”

One of the photos shows two people using large posters to keep mama and her brood of 13 ducklings headed in the right direction.

“She has us trained” one worker said, according to the hospital’s post.

The mother duck follows the same path through the building every year, heading from the courtyard to the light from a door at the end of the corridor.

“You folks are wonderful, letting mama duck and her babies pass through your facility each year!!! Thumbs up for caring so much!!!! LOVE stories like this!!! Hope it never changes!!!….” one person wrote on Facebook.

A final photo shows the ducks walking across the grass outside the hospital, on their way to a nearby park with a lake.