{"id":612686,"date":"2026-04-29T05:38:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T05:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/612686\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T05:38:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T05:38:19","slug":"milwaukie-mallard-gets-her-14-ducklings-from-a-balcony-to-a-pond-with-some-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/612686\/","title":{"rendered":"Milwaukie mallard gets her 14 ducklings from a balcony to a pond \u2014 with some help"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Shannon Diez helps direct traffic as Rosie the duck and her ducklings are relocated to a nearby pond on April 27, 2026. Almost every year, ducks are found nesting in planter boxes or other areas at the RoseVilla retirement community.<\/p>\n

Saskia Hatvany \/ OPB<\/p>\n

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Recently hatched ducklings with Rosie, in a third floor planter at RoseVilla, a senior living facility. <\/p>\n

Saskia Hatvany \/ OPB<\/p>\n

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Penny Naumoff, left, along with RoseVilla residents and staff, waiting for the nesting duck to leave the nest on Naumoff’s porch.<\/p>\n

Saskia Hatvany \/ OPB<\/p>\n

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RoseVilla residents watch a live stream of of the duck while they wait for her to leave the nest on April 27, 2026 in Portland, Ore.<\/p>\n

Saskia Hatvany \/ OPB<\/p>\n

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Neighbor Shannon Diez gets a look at Rosie. <\/p>\n

Saskia Hatvany \/ OPB<\/p>\n

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After the ducklings hatched and Rosie appeared ready to leave the nest, Josh Fox, an employee at RoseVilla retirement community, gathered the chicks into a carrier to transport them to the pond. Fox came in on his day off to help safely transport the ducklings.<\/p>\n

Saskia Hatvany \/ OPB<\/p>\n

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Rosie flew off the balcony where her nest was, and calls up to them. <\/p>\n

Saskia Hatvany \/ OPB<\/p>\n

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The ducklings are loaded in the carrier and transported to the pond.<\/p>\n

Saskia Hatvany \/ OPB<\/p>\n

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Rosie the duck follows the carrier with her ducklings on April 27, 2026 in Portland, Ore.<\/p>\n

Saskia Hatvany \/ OPB<\/p>\n

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Rosie the duck follows Josh Fox as he carries her chicks to a nearby pond.<\/p>\n

Saskia Hatvany \/ OPB<\/p>\n

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Chicks exit the carrier into the pond where their mother awaits.<\/p>\n

Saskia Hatvany \/ OPB<\/p>\n

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Rosie is reunited with her ducklings.<\/p>\n

Saskia Hatvany \/ OPB<\/p>\n

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Rosie the duck is chased by a male after being reunited with her ducklings. During mating season, male ducks can be aggressive with females.<\/p>\n

Saskia Hatvany \/ OPB<\/p>\n

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The ducklings scatter, separated from their mother, and join another female and her chicks.<\/p>\n

Saskia Hatvany \/ OPB<\/p>\n

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From left, Nadine Larson and Skip True watch the mallard duck nesting. Residents will have to wait and see if another “Rosie” will return next year.<\/p>\n

Saskia Hatvany \/ OPB<\/p>\n

\uf054<\/p>\n

Dozens of residents from RoseVilla Senior Living in Milwaukie watched \u201cRosie\u201d the duck as she nested for nearly four weeks in a planter on a third-story apartment balcony. <\/p>\n

Then, on Monday afternoon, she led her ducklings safely away from the precarious nest. And the people at RoseVilla helped get all of them to a pond at the nearby Willamette View retirement community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the talk of the town,\u201d said RoseVilla maintenance officer Josh Fox. <\/p>\n

Fox collected the ducklings in a cat carrier, with mesh sides, because leaving them on the balcony would mean about a 40-foot fall onto the concrete below. He then walked them downstairs and through the apartment complex to meet an anxious Rosie in the car park below.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year since I\u2019ve been here, ducks will lay eggs and we\u2019ll walk them down to the river,\u201d Fox said. Because the ducks nest at different buildings within the RoseVilla community, they all get the nickname \u201cRosie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Penny<\/p>\n

Penny Naumoff, left, observes the duck that has been nesting on her porch for weeks at the RoseVilla retirement community in Portland, Ore. on April 27, 2026.<\/p>\n

Saskia Hatvany \/ OPB<\/p>\n

Penny Naumoff owns the apartment where this Rosie settled. She says in early April there was dirt all over the balcony, and she thought a crow had been digging around for bugs in her planter. Then she saw an egg.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing is, once you have an egg, you can\u2019t do anything,\u201d she said. \u201cYou have to leave it alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Migratory Bird Act of 1918<\/a> prohibits disturbing a wild duck\u2019s nest. So Naumoff watched as, over the next two weeks, Rosie returned to lay egg after egg, day after day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, \u2018This is not good,\u2019\u201d said Naumoff. \u201cHow are we going to keep these ducklings from falling over a three-story building? That would be terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says the whole thing has been stressful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was sort of like an unexpected pregnancy,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019re not ready and it\u2019s like, \u2018Wow, I don\u2019t know if I want this or not.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosie sat for 27 days hardly eating, as is normal. Naumoff built a rapport with her, even putting up a video camera without the duck flying away. She also removed a piece of tape that was stuck to Rosie\u2019s feathers.<\/p>\n

\"Rosie<\/p>\n

Rosie with her freshly hatched chicks, at the RoseVilla retirement community in Portland, Ore. on April 27, 2026. The duck made her nest in a third floor planter at the facility and the seniors watched over her and helped the ducklings to the pond after the hatch.<\/p>\n

Saskia Hatvany \/ OPB<\/p>\n

Naumoff tried feeding her too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was told very quickly that that is not what Bird Alliance of Oregon recommends,\u201d she said. \u201cYou do not do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trouble is, food can attract predators.<\/p>\n

Rosie\u2019s eggs started hatching Sunday evening. Then, once the ducklings had bonded with her by Monday afternoon, she started moving. One by one, they followed her out of the nest.<\/p>\n

The journey to the pond was a community affair, with several people involved, bystanders clapping, and even a sign to warn passing drivers of the procession. The ducklings were then released onto the water with their mother.<\/p>\n

But spring was in full swing, and nature can be unpredictable. Half a dozen male ducks spotted Rosie and became aggressive. Some of her helpers threw stones near the males and made loud noises to drive them away.<\/p>\n

Naumoff says it\u2019s been an emotional journey. <\/p>\n

\u201cLike a mom who has teenagers, who\u2019s ready to get them out of the house!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rosie<\/p>\n

Rosie and her chicks are reunited after the chicks were transferred to the pond.<\/p>\n

Saskia Hatvany \/ OPB<\/p>\n

Now the ducklings are at the pond, with help from the RoseVilla community, but Naumoff understands their survival is far from certain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trouble is that you\u2019ve got predators,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got the eagles that live around here.\u201d<\/p>\n

So the next chapter begins for Rosie and her 14 ducklings. It could take them a couple of months to learn to fly, according to Ducks Unlimited<\/a>. And survival rates before that can be as low as 10%.<\/p>\n

Now Josh Fox, Penny Naumoff and other RoseVilla residents will wait for next spring to see whether and where yet another Rosie will nest in their community. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shannon Diez helps direct traffic as Rosie the duck and her ducklings are relocated to a nearby pond…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[266016,79,201],"class_list":["post-612686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-portland-metro","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}