The dog and I took a quick walk at the William Land Park today. It was a short one because it was hot out there…
I was watching a Green Heron fish from the side of the middle pond. He started out using a small dead bug as a lure. But as he walked along, he came across a live bee that was taking a sip of water from the bank. He caught the bee, threw it into the water, and used it as a lure instead. I didn’t see him catch anything, but he was very committed to his task, moving the lure to different parts of the water when he was unsuccessful in one spot for more than few seconds.
There were also several pairs of Wood Ducks among the other ducks at the pond, and when I passed one of the duck boxes mounted on a tree near the water, I could hear a female Wood Duck making whining sounds inside of it while the male stood on the ground below the box. After a few minutes the female flew out and joined the male in the water. I’m not sure, but I think she had been laying an egg in the box. ((My chickens used to make noises similar to the duck’s noise when they were laying.)) It’s a little late in the season for new baby ducks, but Wood Ducks sometimes have more than one brood per year, and have their second set of ducklings in the summer. At the largest of the three ponds in the park, I came across another female Wood Duck with a troop of four tiny ducklings… and a mama Mallard and her babies. Wood Ducks are much smaller than Mallard, so their fuzzy babies are proportionally small too; little fuzzy bumps with shiny eyes. So cute.
After the walk, we went right home.
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