I had several posts to write today, but my the frames of glasses just broke and, as I have no spare pair and a wedding to go to Sunday, I may have to chase around Chicago today finding a fix. Bear with me if I don’t get to the computer for a while. In the meantime, enjoy my duck!
The interloper duck Daisy hasn’t been at the pond for two days, so perhaps she’s gone for good. That leaves Honey and I alone again, and she was waiting for me in the narrow part of the pond when I came downstairs this morning to feed her with a big beaker of corn. (The mealworms haven’t yet arrived, but should within two days.) She’s still quite skittish, for reasons I don’t understand, and won’t come nearly close enough to me to eat from my palm. I toss her kernels of corn singly or by twos, and she dabbles for them. It takes a while to feed her that way! But it gives me great peace to be alone in the morning quiet with my duck.
The good news is that she’s healthy and her primary flight feathers are quite large. I’m not sure if she can fly, as I haven’t seen her take off, but she must be close. Here’s a better view of how her flight feathers are growing; they’re the big ones sticking out right in front of her tail.
I hope Daisy hasn’t gone off and joined the Neo-Nazis.
Birds are too intelligent for that!
Have you bumped into UofC alumnus retired Sid Colton [A.B. ’89] & his dog Ethel at The Pond Jerry? He writes quite a lot about the Botany Pond ducks. Not so much since May though. This is him in the photo with his dawg: https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2017/1/17/mysterious-world-sid-colton/
Nice blog
A peccadillo, our host prefers website, not bl*g.
Love the Ducky. Oh, for those who have not yet heard….Bannon is gone. Came out maybe 30 minutes ago.
He didn’t even get enough time to sprout his flight feathers.
He tried a last attempt at holding on with his statement yesterday, but the debacle of the last few days required a sacrifice and he was the obvious candidate. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
It is really funny I think, that Bannon probably made the best statement yet on the Korean problem. In so many word he said, there is no military solution to the North Korean situation. Unless you know some way that hundreds of thousands in Seoul don’t die there is nothing to be done…they got us.
I agree.
Bannon was at the pond?
ehhh – not really…
I’ve been feeding house finches, nuthatches, an occasional grosbeak, goldfinches, towhees, doves, and squirrels for about five years now. Every time I come out to replenish the supplies, everything scatters like I’m there to commit great evil. I’m a little jealous that some people get to have wild birds as friends. All the local ones think I’m Darth Vader.
@Andy Rent, buy, make or steal one of these?: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/explore/bird-costume/
Hi Jerry. In your next post about Honey, could we please get a comparison shot of her flight feathers when her babies were still there, and how they are now?
I’ll try; I usually ditch the photos after I post them here. I’m not sure when the molt started.
Thanks mate. You should be able to pick them up from your WordPress media gallery, though yours might work differently to mine as you use a different version.
Any temptation to thy and band the bird to track her?
According to the Federal Waterfowl Protection Act, I am not allowed to touch the birds, though I did pat her butt once when she was dabbling close to me. But catching and banding her is serious business–for pros. But I can recognize her by the pattern of dark stippling on the side of her beak.
About your broken glasses, have you considered a fix with Duck tape? 🙂
I love your artistic photos of Honey in her iridescent, watery environ.