Every year since 1995, a strange but sweet tradition takes place without explanation at a Canandaigua, New York nursing home.

A mother duck lays her eggs in the enclosed courtyard of the Thompson Health’s M.M. Ewing Continuing Care Center to lay her eggs and take care of her babies. Before the home was built, she would trundle off across the grass with them and into the nearby pond when everyone was ready to go.

After its construction, the mother ducks (there have to be more than one since the duck lifespan is less than 10 years) weren’t about to change their routine just because a building was in the way.

So now, each Spring, the staff fully expects the resident mother to tap on the glass door to be let in and follow the old path back to the pond.

The hilarious event made the national news last year and people around the world enjoyed photos of the duck and ducklings being led through the facility and out the door to continue their journey after staff posted about the event on Facebook.

They captioned the 5 photos:

“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. 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.”

There were 13 ducklings last year!

And their presence is not only adorable but a welcome sign of Spring since they are North American mallards which always return when the weather is going to stay warm.

Mallards are also pretty fearless, so it’s no surprise that the mother ducks choose to have their babies near a man-made structure (and, technically, it appears they were there first anyway).

Still, it’s not every day you see an annual duckling parade through a senior care facility!

Staff carefully helped usher everyone through, making large signs (some with arrows, in case the ducklings needed some guidance and suddenly learned to recognize signs) to direct the babies in the right direction and keep everyone together.

And from what we can tell it appears a duck family was there this year as well, though there was a bit of a snafu.

The parade took place as normal for one family of 14, but another mama duck lost her babies in a storm drain!

Luckily, someone saw what happened and the facility posted some sweet rescue photos on Facebook.

“The Canandaigua Fire Department assisted Thompson staff members and passersby Tuesday evening in reuniting a mama duck with eight ducklings who had disappeared into a storm grate along West Street. The reunited family was taken to a nearby pond after the rescue, which lasted approximately an hour because the ducklings had gone in different directions, through a maze of pipes,” they said.

Mom then followed rescuers over to the pond where she took off with her brood.

Things went better for the parading ducks, who showed up for the 25th year in a row!

And while they were probably wondering what the new face coverings and visitor policies were all about, they made it out safely and to the pond together.

Of course, everyone is now looking forward to their return next year.

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Source: NBC New York, Thompson Health via Facebook