Saturday, March 12, 2011

The Pond: its Residents, Visitors, and Intruders

With spring comes floods of water, and most of it congregates in our back yard. It floods our pond and overflows the banks of our stream, washing through and leaving behind what to us humans looks like a mess, and to the creatures of the pond, a beautiful habitat.

Mr. Dick and his girls, Emma and Dora, are current residents of the pond, and they are enjoying the swelled proportions of it very much right now. So it seems do other ducks.


Yesterday morning we peered out at the large pond and saw to our surprise 6 extra ducks swimming around. There were two pairs and two bachelor little Mallard ducks. Dick soon chased off the bachelors, and one of the pairs left of their own accord some time later.


But the last couple stayed all day long, and allowed me to get some very pretty pictures of them with the sun streaming down on the glowing water. They soon were tired of the photo session however, and flew off into the sunset


When I returned later with some food for my ducks, I saw a little brown creature eating next to the walking bridge. After a few pictures I identified the intruder as a muskrat. Even though he was unwanted, I did get some pictures of him before Josiah took care of him.


Our pond is quite an interesting place, with its share of God's creatures to watch.
~Chs