Fall Favorites - Ducks

The widgeon with his blue bill adds some color.



I just wanted to mention ducks for a little while. I derive great pleasure from witnessing the Spring and Fall Migrations. With a pond just fifty feet from the deck in back of our log house, the scene is bucolic, entertaining, and soothingly reassuring that the ebb and flow of the seasons is to remind us that all the everchanging energy in and around us does have rhythm and continuity if not stability. They come and they go; the seasons, the ducks, the energies; waxing and waning like the moon.

The hooded merganser sticks out in a crowd as the white head and chest are so bright.

The pintail, aptly named for it's sharp looking tail.
The northern shoveler is sometimes confused with the colors of the mallard but he is equipped with the heavy "spoonbill" for scooping around the bottom.

Text © 2004 Mona E. Dunn