~This is where I sit when watching the comings and goings of the pond. It is a nice spot for sipping hot coffee in the morning ( when the weather is nice) and a great spot to sit in the evening with my husband, especially when we get a camp fire going....I have noticed I see the wood duck enter the snag every evening about 6:30 - 7:00. I don't know where she goes, or where she comes from....but she arrives and enters the snag so quickly I cannot snap a picture of her!
~I did get a picture of the two ducks that survived the coyote massacre...they are swimming peacefully on the other side of the pond. They have a nest in their pen and I noticed the runner duck female ( right ) carefully covers her eggs with feathers and wood shavings before she leaves them to swim in the pond. The male is a tiny Call duck, and I have seen him and the female mating so I know the eggs are fertile, but i cannot help wondering just what the ducklings will look like ...a cross between a Call duck and a Runner! In terms for you non-duck people, this is like a Chihuahua male mating with a Greyhound female .
~The island was beautiful! It is covered in Lilies of the Valley and ferns..shaded by Cedar, Cottonwood and Alder trees. The wild ducks are still here too, nesting somewhere on the island.The pond was still enough for the reflection to be almost mirror - like.
~Here is the top of the snag, about 16 - 20 feet high, where the wood duck quickly flies in. I saw her tonight and I think she was deliberately toying with me. As I was quietly observing the top of the snag I heard.... then felt, a WHOOSH as she flew barely 2 feet directly OVER MY HEAD and alighted on the snag and into the crevice. So, she is still here, I am assuming the ducklings are not hatched out, and I will keep watch.
"Four ducks on a pond,A grass bank beyond,
A blue sky of spring, white clouds on the wing:
What a little thing To remember for years-
To remember with tears!"
William Allingham ( 1824-1889) Irish Poet
