It’s been a regular duck roller-coaster around here. Two days ago Honey and James were disporting themselves in the pond, the loving couple shown below (lots of big koi also go for the noms):
James attentively guarding his mate:
A video of the loving couple trying to eat in the wind. Note James paddling backwards at 0:19—one of his skills. Honey finds some corn on the island.
Then when I came to the pond yesterday morning, Honey had disappeared! James looked stunned and then depressed, and didn’t eat very much. She was gone for a day and a half, and most of the time James sat disconsolately on the island, hunched up and sad. He didn’t eat very much, either. Sometimes he’d swim around the pond aimlessly. Photos from yesterday and this morning:
Where is she?
Then, some time between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. today, Honey returned! I was overjoyed, and, judging by the amount that James ate, so was he. Honey had a good feed, too. But where did she go? I’ll never know.
James stretches out his neck in joy:
Honey has no idea what she puts males of the same and different species through! Glad she’s back though. 🙂
Don’t ask, don’t tell. Quack.
You need food’n, baby I’m not foolin’
In the pond at UC schoolin’
Way down inside Honey, you need it
I’m gonna sit by the pond
I’m gonna sit by the pond
OH!
Got a whole lotta ducks
Got a whole lotta ducks
Got a whole lotta ducks
Got a whole lotta ducks
When you been migratin’, baby I’ve been shaken
All them good times baby baby with my mealworms
Way, way down inside Honey, you need it
I’m gonna give you my grubs
I’m gonna give you my grubs
Got a whole lotta ducks
Got a whole lotta ducks
Got a whole lotta ducks
Got a whole lotta ducks
Anna’s been ‘graphin’, while I’ve been travelin’
All the good times baby, I’ve been missing you
Way, way down inside, I’m going to give you some corn
I’m gonna give you every bit of my corn
And build a ramp for your like duck young
Got a whole lotta ducks
Got a whole lotta ducks
Got a whole lotta ducks
Got a whole lotta ducks
Way down inside, duck, you need grubs
Flap for me girl
I want Frank to be your backdoor man
Hey! Oh! Hey! Oh! Hey! Oh!
Migrate when it cools baby
Migrate when it cools baby
Migrate when it cools baby
Migrate when it cools baby
I admit this is not my best work…
Poor James Pond: Trampled Under (webbed) Foot. (Apologies! But it’s “Zepptember” on Planet Rock…)
Pond-Yr-Aur is the best instrumental song in history made entirely of quacking sounds
Good one! Though perhaps it should be “Had a whole lotta ducks” in respect of Honey’s big brood this summer.
It’s cute, I like it. 🙂
Maybe Honey was looking for the BBD – bigger and better deal. Apparently, she did not find it and came back to James.
Maybe she knew that all the first years would be marching through Hull Gate yesterday and did not want to be around for it.
I hope all the new first years who arrived on campus yesterday learn quickly to respect the Pond and its residents. Although someone probably ended up in the pond last night after the Glow Party.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BoEwC–HS0U/?taken-by=uchicagocollege
I guess Honey the Heartbreaker was Over the Hills and Far Away having a night Out on the Tiles. Sorry that I had to Ramble On like this!
Oops, my post was meant to follow comment 3 above.
It sounds like Honey has been fooling around either with another drake or another professor emeritus. I recall from my U of C days (long,long ago) that the physics faculty were a pretty shady bunch.
Hmmm…. Honey has been a stellar mom. I wonder she has been quietly checking up on the kids who might be congregated at a watering hole not too far away.
8 koi in one shot! They need noms for the winter, too. I’m glad they’re getting some.