Drama in the storm

Yesterday we were under a tornado watch for most of the afternoon into the evening, and although we thankfully never had high wind nor any rotation here, nor the huge hail that fell in counties around us, we did have a severe thunderstorm.

As usual I was out at the barn making sure horses and pony and donkeys had fresh water, hay, and were settled in. It was pouring rain, thunder was booming, and suddenly the pony and donkeys went into high alert. The ducks were heading through the neighbor's yard at a nice clip, straight for our front field.

The pony's head went up high, ears pricked, and then suddenly off he went down the dirt paddock toward the front field gate at a huge, fast trot. He arrived at the fence about the same time the ducks did and they swerved and headed back in the direction they came from. The pony stood guard under the big oak tree for awhile until I lured him back to the barn, rain still pouring down.

Once he was in the barn eating his hay the ducks made their way back to the fence, ducked under, and ran across the front field to the "little" barnyard, where they gathered under the closer oak and began to eat millipedes.

They were eyeing the barn door and I was trying to figure out what would happen if they suddenly ran in the barn. Who among the equines would spook, who would not? Who would chase them out? I was wishing I had my phone and its camera and video capabilities but it was inside the house.

As I stood there watching a huge lightning bolt struck somewhere across the gravel lane, and as it hit and sizzled loudly the ducks' tails all waggled in unison with the sizzle. Then they took off and ran quacking back across the front field toward home.

I'm not sure what ducks were doing out in such a storm but they perked up my evening and by dinner time the storm had passed and all was quiet again.