Will court visitor quack cases?

To put it delicately, there are eggs, but ducklings are doubtful.
& lt;a href=mailto:meade@vindy.com & gt;By PATRICIA MEADE & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
BOARDMAN -- For seven weeks, a mother duck has hunkered down on top of the dirt in a small concrete planter outside Mahoning County Court's back door.
Call it perfect camouflage: The lady mallard is the color of the dirt.
"You'd be surprised how many people walk right past and don't see her," said Margaret Micco, clerk of court. "She never leaves now that all her eggs are laid."
The round concrete sidewalk planter is a foot or so away from the curb of the Boardman Plaza's northeast corner parking lot, which faces busy (and noisy) U.S. Route 224. A roof overhang offers shade and some protection from rain, unless the wind blows toward the patient would-be mother.
Checks on her
The court's back door, a few feet from the planter, is locked and not a public entrance. One of the keyholders is Judge Joseph Houser, who checks on "Court Ducky" when he goes in and out, Micco said.
Micco said attorneys who go out the back door for a quick smoke on the sidewalk return to tell her: "Hey, there's a duck out there."
"We say, 'Yeah, we know -- that's our Court Ducky,'" Micco said.
Everyone who visits the court asks about the nesting mallard.
"Why she picked this spot is a good question," said Dee Onesti, deputy clerk of court and official seven-day-a-week duck feeder.
"It's that stupid drake's fault," Micco said of the no-account father. "The husband, he left the day he came and dropped her off."
The nest is a depression in the planter dirt, with a few twigs and scraggly molted feathers thrown in to make it homey. The nest contains seven brown eggs.
No celebration planned
No one at the court, though, has planned a baby shower or made sure to have cameras on hand for the hatching of seven fuzzy ducklings.
To put it delicately, Court Ducky is probably sitting on unfertilized eggs.
It's not uncommon to have unfertilized eggs, said Dave Brown, Ohio Department of Natural Resources wildlife officer. The duck could be too young or she could have been frightened off the nest long enough to let the eggs get cold, he said.
Brown acknowledged the possibility that the drake had some problems of his own -- fertilization-wise.
The gestation period for ducks is 28 days, and Court Ducky is past that, Brown said. On the outside chance that ducklings hatch, Court Ducky would take her offspring, single file, from the planter to the nearest water source within a day, he said.
"You feel bad when they don't hatch," Brown said. "Before too long, she'll fly away and forget about her nest."
Feeding times
Micco said she called Brown weeks ago with questions about the mallard, like what to feed her. "He said, 'No, no, no. Don't give her bread. Give her cracked corn and water.'"
Onesti feeds the duck during the week and she and her daughter stop on the weekends, too.
The Route 224 corridor, close to Mill Creek Park and ponds and streams near homes and office complexes, has had its share of duck nests with successful hatchings, Brown said. Truly wild ducks stay clear of people, but ducks hatched and raised in or near the park are accustomed to people and traffic noise, he said.
A place to swim
Heavy rains the past weeks flooded the plaza parking lot, Court Ducky's front yard, so to speak. Joe Moroni, who owns Neapolitan Music, near the planter-turned-duck-nest, said he saw the mallard "swimming all over the lot."
"Dave said her instincts will kick in, will tell her when it's OK to leave," Micco said, quoting the wildlife officer's expertise. "We worry about her."
Micco said she hopes Court Ducky picks a better mate next time.
& lt;a href=mailto:meade@vindy.com & gt;meade@vindy.com & lt;/a & gt;