Creche

A great French term for a place for young children. In the duck world it is a large group of ducklings.

Creches are common for ducklings that inhabit open water with no escape cover from avian predators. It is safety in numbers.

Top is a multiple Redhead creche. Bottom is a creche of Lesser Scaup that had over 250 ducklings, but I could only get about 90 in one photo.

Often the number of attending hens is too few for the duckling count.