I fully anticipated that when I went to the pond this morning, laden with corn and mealworms, I would be duckless—flat out of duck. I was even going to write a post called “The bill is gone.” But Honey came back; I suspect she’s ducking with me and testing out her wings. Lord knows where she flies to. (No he doesn’t, as there’s no such Ground of Being.) At any rate, she was there this morning, I had my better camera, and I got photos of her, including gobbling the mealworms.
Daisy, her erstwhile companion, appears to be gone for good.
I’m feeding her up now; I’ll be gone in two weeks and I doubt I’ll see her after that. Today’s photos; in the first, her loon-like red eye is from a flash:
“Tasty Mealworms™” for breakfast:
Yeah, she’s back! I was afraid something bad had happened to her.
Delighted to see her back in town.
When is your first cold front due?
Jesus, you and that duck — it’s like Liz Taylor & Richard Burton with the break-ups and make-ups.
Keep it up, we’re gonna have to give the two of you one of those portmanteau names, like Benniffer or Brangelina.
This is starting to remind me just a little too much of one particular girl friend in college…
“I’ll be gone in two weeks and I doubt I’ll see her after that.”
Well I hope you have the decency to break up with her in person rather than just not showing up.
I’ll send her a text message. 🙂
If she leaves you might be able to claim it on your taxes: a de-ducktion.
Evrybody’s a comedian over here!
And all of us will be here all week.
“The Bill is Gone”? More like “Honeybird, don’t fly away”
Gees, I’m really worrying about this duck. In the wild, good runs out, so they fly off, so you’re creating a false flood of food by feeding her. I’m just so worried that she’ll miss the boat on leaving. How does that work? Don’t they fly together to find their way? You’re the biologist, please reassure me that she’ll be fine and I’m worrying for nothing, the daily tension is killing me!
I’m leaving for Poland soon and will be gone for a couple of weeks. It’ll still be warm then and I suspect she’ll leave if she isn’t gone already.
If she’s here when I return, I’m calling Fish and Wildlife.
What, take out a restraining order?
Thanks. Reassured 🙂
My worry is some lug head with a shotgun will get her during hunting season. Over the years I’ve developed a real affinity for animals. I hate seeing them hunted for “sport”.
In NZ all the water bodies in the middle of towns and cities fill up with ducks during duck shooting season where they can’t be shot at. Many of them appear to know what time it is and where they’ll be safe.
Sounds like she’s heading back to nature’s Daisy chain soon.
I was wondering if you could leave her a floating bistro for your two weeks away….. something floaty like doubled-up styrofoam plates on which you could leave a generous amount of dry cracked corn.
She doesn’t like dry corn, nor is it good for ducks–everything she likes is perishable or would be eaten by the voracious turtles, who can climb on the lily pads to get corn. Unless I hire a surrogate feeder, she’ll have to do without.
I’m waiting for Honey to post a “My Jerry’s gone” lament.