On Big Pond

Well, I'm back. With my granddaughter, I've been hiking and museuming and poking around docks and birding and following winding roads going we knew not where. Brown's Bay, Oyster Bay, Paradise Meadows, Mount Washington, and more. And then three days of down time; I'm not quite as young as I used to be. (Aren't we all?)

I have stacks of photos to process. For now, here's the Big Pond in Paradise Meadows, with mallards.

Buckbeans, water lilies, and duck tracks.

Buckbeans, Mentyanthes trifoliata, (aka bogbeans) grow in shallow water. In Paradise Meadows they circle the ponds and line the creeks. We sat on a bench overlooking the largest pond, watching dragonflies wheeling over the buckbean borders. Hunting, perhaps, or just the mating dances?

Mallard female and shallow water.

And a manky mallard, a hybrid with a long, dark grey neck.

Big Pond.

Tomorrow; scruffy jays, I think,

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Hace una semana me despedí; ahora estoy de vuelta. Con mi nieta, hemos estado siguiendo senderos en varias partes, visitando un museo, mirando criaturas debajo de muelles, buscando pájaros (ella con su cámara con una lente enorme), y perdiéndonos en caminos que no sabíamos a donde nos llevaban ... En Brown's Bay, Oyster Bay, el monte Washington y Paradise Meadows (Praderas de Paraíso, a 1000 m. de altura) y más. Y luego tomé tres dias para recuperarme; los años pesan.

Y ahora tengo toneladas de fotos para escoger y procesar. Aquí son las primeras; fotos de la Laguna Grande en las Praderas de Paraíso, con sus patos.

1. La laguna, con tréboles de agua, Menyanthes trifoliata, lirios acuáticos y un pato con su sendero marcado en el agua. Los tréboles de agua crecen en agua de poca profundidad; en estas praderas rodean todas las lagunas y siguen los riachuelos. Nos sentamos en un banco mirando las libélulas que volaban sobre y entre los tréboles. Cazando, puede ser, o tal vez haciendo sus danzas nupciales.
2. Un ánade real hembra.
3. El segundo pájaro es un ánade híbrido, muy común en esta familia de pájaros. Este tiene un cuello largo y gris.
4. La Laguna Grande.

Para mañana, creo, tendré fotos de arrendajos.

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".

Mostly mallards

With the beavers in control again, the ponds full of water and reflections, the cold weather approaching, birds are coming back to Cougar Creek park. On the water, they're mostly mallards at this season; other waterfowl will show up when winter comes.

We took too many photos of mallards and reflections.

The main pond, surrounded by trees and weeds. The flock of mallards is behind me, hurrying to catch up, just in case I'm carrying treats. The diving birds, mergansers, buffleheads, and wood ducks prefer this deeper water. Mallards and wigeons dabble in the shallows.

Mallard female, with reflections mimicing her feather pattern,

Mallard pair. Yellow scribbles reflect not-quite-bare trees on the far shore.

At the creek entrance, the trees crowd in, creating shadows and marvellous green water.

Male and blue sky (reflected).

Manky mallard. Has hints of purplish blue on the head, no blue speculum, patchy back.

Far down the quiet arm of the main pond, a flock of pine siskins was drinking at the end of a log, chattering and preening as they waited their turn.

We didn't do the complete circuit, because of Laurie's back, so we missed the sparrows and finches that hang out near the blackberry patch, and the robins that patrol the lawns. Next time; every day, Laurie is getting more of his strength back.

A Skywatch post.

Birds in the distance, and a lifer close up.

And returning to the topic at hand ...

The rest of the Reifel Island photos, again, in no particular order. Mostly birds, this time.

Duck and squiggles

Yellowlegs, far in the distance

Cedar waxwing. Love the delicate peach/yellow colouring!

Purple loosestrife, colonizing an islet

Yellow-green water, island with posing heron.

Ducklings

Duckling scratching his belly. How does he get himself so twisty?

Unidentified duck

Manky mallard, maybe?

Towhee, just out of the overhang of the blackberry canes.

Lbb and blackberries. The red one has been nibbled on. I think he has some in his beak.

Little green apple

Young wood duck in the mud at the edge of the slough. A lifer!

One more day, and we're on the road north!