via Twitter

Big news out of the Capitol on Friday, where ducklings have successfully mastered the ramp installed earlier this week at the Capitol Reflecting Pool.

Look at them waddle, hesitant but resolute, navigating a near-pile up before ultimately taking the plunge. We are all of them, they are all of us, and quack to the haters.

The two access slides were installed Monday by the Architect of the Capitol, in partnership with nonprofit City Wildlife, with the aim of helping the ducklings reenter the water—an especially challenging task considering the “sloped limestone coping of the pool.” At the time, President of City Wildlife Anne Lewis noted the animals possessed “an uncanny ability to locate a way out of water, if one is provided.”

Uncanny, indeed!

The Architect of the Capitol added that there are are four families of Mallards living in the reflecting pool, along with some migrating ducks who stop by in the spring and fall. A group of Mallard ducks that are not in flight, it turns out, are known as a sord.

Here’s some more of the Capitol Reflecting Pool’s extremely good sords:

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