Woman captures ducks’ utter bafflement as pond freezes over

A flock of ducks experiencing a first winter were left completely baffled when their pond froze overnight.

Mary Grace Locy, 53, and her husband Jon, 56, live on an 11-acre property in Washington, Pennsylvania, with a flock of ducks they raised from chicks.

Locy worked in healthcare for 25 years before stepping away in 2023, instead setting up a consulting agency and focusing on “creating a homestead” with her husband.

That homestead includes a pond she and Jon built together. The pond is her favorite spot on the property, and home to their adored flock.

One recent morning, Locy headed down to the pond to let the ducks out. Noticing the pond had frozen over, she decided to record the ducks’ reaction.

“I honestly wasn’t sure that they would go out on the water as they are extremely resistant to change,” she told Newsweek. “To my surprise, Daisy dove right onto the ice. Because they are such a tight-knit group, they then all followed, which almost appears to be a rescue mission!”

Locy shared a video of the unique moment to her TikTok account, @marygracelocy, on November 30, 2024, and it has since been viewed over 5 million times.

It showed the ducks’ first time experiencing ice, with Locy narrating the video: “The water’s starting to freeze over, let’s see what they do.”

She lets the flock out of their heated shed, and they all rush to the edge before stopping—apart from Daisy, who heads right out onto the frozen ice and stays there, looking around utterly confused.

Locy fears Daisy has become stuck, but at that moment several more ducks rush over to her, slipping and sliding across the ice, and Daisy begins moving again. Eventually the flock are all waddling on the ice, before returning to the security of the ground, quacking furiously.

TikTok users loved it, with thousands commenting on the clip, including one who laughed: “I love how they all came back to tell you they have to file a complaint with a manager.”

“Them cussing at the end because you didn’t warn them,” another joked, while one wrote: “I’ve never seen ducks ice skating before!”

Locy said she has been “truly blown away by the views and comments” her video received, having initially recorded the moment only to show it to her husband.

She assured Newsweek the ducks have “since adjusted, and check everything out before taking the leap now.”

And for anyone concerned about the ducks losing access to water in the winter months, she explained: “We have a spring right near the pond that overflows into a bathtub that provides them with fresh water so they can swim and drink all year round.

“And honestly, sometimes even in the summer they prefer it over the pond!”

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