An unexpected guest showed up at Dan Jensen’s house last May, and by the time she finally left a little over a month later, she had given Jensen and his wife, Julianne Amendola, a baker’s dozen of surprises: twelve little ducklings and one award-winning picture.
“Mama,” as Jensen dubbed his surprise guest, chose his property in Mound for her nest. Over the next couple of weeks, Jensen grew more intrigued by Mama and watching the duck and her nest became part of his daily routine.
In the middle of a beautiful June day, ducklings began to emerge. Jensen, who had been checking on the duck multiple times a day in anticipation of the hatchings, was able to watch from about 15 feet away. “They were perfectly formed: little yellow fuzz and black eyes,” he says. “It really was the miracle of birth.”
Using his Canon 50D camera with a zoom lens, Jensen began to photograph the duck and her ducklings. Although he caught several good shots of just the mother or just the babies, it was this shot that immediately drew his attention. Mama was calm, Jensen reports. She didn’t mind his presence, even so close to her babies. The next day, when she moved her babies out to water, she became a fierce protector, and Jensen wasn’t allowed anywhere near the ducklings. But for those few hours when her fuzzy ducklings first broke out of their eggs, Mama was happy.
