Pine-cone fish and a manky mallard

Beside the pond in Boundary Park, a half-dozen small children, mostly preschoolers, were watching ducklings in a shallow mini-bay. I was carrying a bag of bread crumbs, so I joined the group and added to the fun.

"Mmmm ... ! Multi-grain bread, my fave!"

These were half-grown ducklings, out on their own with parents supervising from a distance. They were obviously accustomed to being fed in this spot, and came out of the water, right up to the kids feet, to pick up stray crumbs. So ... great excitement all around; laughing, squealing, (the kids) splashing, gobbling, sometimes fighting (the ducklings).

And then the fish turned up, as excited as all the rest.

The water is shallow; the carp is scraping his belly in the mud to get at the bread.

The setting sun catches the carp's fan tail, turning it a neon orange.

There is a school of these at Reifel Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary; they feed in the shadow of a steep bank, where the sun rarely shines. Even there, the pattern of their scales stands out. Here, half out of water, and in sunlight, it is even more striking.

And don't they look like evergreen cones? Look:

A pine cone, maybe, in wet weather?

Adults, on the fringes of the feeding horde, not hungry enough to challenge the fish.

The splotchy white duck is another hybrid, a "manky mallard".

Reifel Island: it's not all about the birds.

I'm still processing photos from a couple of hours on Reifel Island. We were shutter happy.

Near the gate, after we run the gauntlet of absolutely starving (to hear them tell it) mallards, we come to a clearing overlooking the lagoons to the east. Just below the fence, a school of carp are usually milling about, waiting for seeds, just like the mallards. I love to feed them, watching them slide over and under each other, in a slithery, complicated dance.

Most of these carp are about 2 feet long.

4 fish here, and swirling water.

Most of the birds were lazing about, waiting for Saturday, but the insects don't have that luxury. They were all busy, busy, busy.

Cross spider, Araneus diadematus, in the center of her web. Every bush and clump of tall grass had several of these, all fat, quite a few with their latest catch.

Big blue-eyed darner, pausing to catch his breath. Not for long.

Syrphid (hover) fly on asters.

Goldenrod and brown water. With a spider's anchor line.

The same goldenrod with a pair of yellow and black look-alikes; a small, long-legged wasp, with a yellow face and yellow striped abdomen,and a hover fly, with its striped vest.

Luckily, this huge wasp nest (10 to 12 inches high) has been abandoned; it is only a couple of feet off the path, and at head height. Usually, they are built higher up in the trees.

We had ostensibly come to see birds.

Sky, branch and mallard reflected in a still pond.

Semicircle of one-legged peeps.

Just a late-summer path.