Well I suppose I went on and on enough about the fact that its fall in my last few posts. I’m sure that everyone in much of the Northern Hemisphere now knows what season it is.


There are still a few trees around the Fish Pond that are trying to hold on to what little color they can. The majority of the remaining leaves are in the upper portion of the Poplars and their reflection on the waters surface in the early sun was stunning. One last big yawn before the forest goes to sleep for the winter.

While my friend the heron has been very scarce my comment from last week about not seeing any eagles or muskrats was at least half correct. As I predicted, after guessing they were gone for the year, an eagle showed up this morning. It flew a few quick circles above the pond and when it didn’t see anything extremely interesting it left.


I actually didn’t see it immediately and might not have seen I at all had the Kingfisher I was photographing not seen it. He hunkered down onto the branch he was perched on and slowly turned his head to watch the eagle as it passed overhead. Nothing small, whether its covered in feathers or covered in fur, seems very comfortable when one of the friendly neighborhood eagles is around. Go figure?


Other than knowing that drakes go with hens and that they spend a lot of time resting and grooming I don’t know a whole lot about duck behavior. I know that Mallards at the pond today did a lot of things I have never seen them do before.


Head bobbing, fighting, posturing and diving. Not a quick splash under the water kind of dive. Today they were going under and staying down for extended periods of time. One pair dove and did not resurface for almost thirty seconds.


My guess is that, at least some of them, are pumped full of energy and ready to begin their long flight south. I’ll have to do a little research to see if I can learn a little more about this sudden change in the normally passive Mallards behavior.


No matter what the time of year there always seems to be something new to learn at the Fish Pond. Even if it’s only finding out something as small as why young ducks behave the way they do take the time to educate yourself. The real lesson you’ll learn is a healthy respect for the wonderful world around you.

Get out their and learn something new today! Its one of the funnest things to do in the great outdoors!

Have a great week!

Kevin