Recently, artist and photographer Laurie Wolf was in her backyard in Jupiter, Florida, inspecting all the different birdhouses (also known as nesting boxes) she and her family have put together. To her surprise, Laurie noticed a mother wood duck moving her egg.

“The mother duck removed the egg from one of our nesting boxes and flew toward this other box with it in her bill,” Laurie told Bored Panda. “We believe that the duck moved the egg because that nest had been raided – there were eggshells at the bottom of the pine tree where the box is.”

“A day or so after we saw that, a screech owl moved into that box.”
A month later, the ducking appeared in the box with the owl. “Seeing the owl with the duckling was honestly the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in my life! It’s still hard to believe.”

“I’m sure the owl hatched the duck egg because she was in the box with it for a whole month,” Laurie said.
The woman got concerned that the predatory owl might eat the duck chick, so she contacted a bird expert. It turned out, Laurie was right to be fearful. One wildlife sanctuary in her area agreed to look after the duckling if Laure caught it. However, just as she attempted to capture the bird, it jumped out of the nest box and ran away to a nearby pond.