“My” two ducks

 

I took a short walk on Saturday to visit two of my fine feathered friends, a pair of ducks with colorful plumage who frequent a pond in a nearby park. They are always happy to see me. I wonder, do they recognize me by now? I’m pretty sure they can identify the bread inside the plastic bag I carry in my vest pocket. They were swimming their usual circles in their winter habitat, surrounded however by a good dozen or more geese who were being rather intrusive as far as bread crumb gathering and distribution was concerned. Two of them actually started an ongoing fight, despite the fact they both had a piece of bread in front of them. I have never been fond of geese (not even when cooked). They may look nice flying in formation, but they are a pushy noisy bunch, not to mention the mess they leave behind. What amused me is that the ducks climbed up out of the pond onto the small ledge in order to be in closer proximity to the bread crumb dispenser. They were duly rewarded, while the riff-raff on the pond was busy fighting with each other. When the bread was gone I was able to briefly stroke the dark-feathered duck as it went back into its nautical domain. It was also surprising to note, that the duck undercarriage when out of the water elevates the whole duck by quite a bit.

Yesterday was 3 Kings (Epiphnanias), and in the German Lutheran tradition the day afterwards is the time when the Christmas tree decorations are taken down, so that’s one of my chores for today, after finishing writing this blog. I guess that’s part of the holiday blahs and blues, putting things back into the box for another year. Thank God New Year’s Day was such a sunny and beautiful day. For Christmas, my potted indoor redwood tree served as the Christmas tree, and was decorated by my youngest son Patrick and his girlfriend Hannah who came down to visit from Portland. A fine job they did too, keeping most of the ornaments out of my cat Calvin’s reach.

As I look at the trees outside my window over the top of my computer screen, I see that they are finally losing their last leaves, the last deciduous hold-outs of the season. The forecast cold nights and rain later in the week should help them in attaining their proper January tree appearance.

Have a blessed week,

Matthias Leue

P.S. Can anyone help me to identify the bird species swimming along with the two ducks?