Duck Tale

The pond behind our house was empty of wood ducks and geese all morning yesterday, but once the sun returned so did they. This morning when I looked out the bedroom window there were three pairs of wood ducks foraging in the grass of our back yard. What a gift these early spring duck visitations are.

Though the wood ducks on the pond look like they get along well together, the truth is that there is a lot of territorial jostling going on, especially this time of year. So here is a little story I caught with photos yesterday afternoon in our backyard.

Duck Tale

Once upon a time there were two pairs of wood ducks swimming in and standing rather close together at the bank of the pond in the photographer’s back yard. “You are too close to me and my bride, said one drake to the other. “Be gone!” and he chased the male away. The photographer didn’t react in time to photograph the chase. Then the territorial male decided that he didn’t want that strange female lurking nearby either.

He waits to see if she will leave with her mate. She doesn’t leave.

“Out! Out!” he quacks as he chases her away. The female wood duck exits so quickly that the photographer misses most of her in her photograph.

The drake stops chasing her and she pauses to gather her wits. “How rude!” she thinks. She rejoins her mate and they pause at the edge of the pond.

“Is it safe to go in,” she asks. “Not yet,” her drake answers. Let’s wait until Mr. Hothead leaves.

The End (of duck tale)

Unexpected grace

This pond behind our house that I hardly thought about when we bought our home has brought me so much joy. When we first looked at this house it was the trees in the backyard that I fell in love with. Now the big basswood tree that shaded the house and the wise old willow tree that stood beside the pond are gone. The basswood was taken by a storm (and it took much of our deck with it) and the willow tree fell trunk by trunk as old age weakened each trunk. I mourned the loss of my beloved trees. But everything changes. Nothing stays the same.

Because we lost the trees I loved so much, I see more wildlife than I did when the trees were still alive. Without the danger of a hawk perched in the big old willow tree more ducks inhabit the pond then ever before. I enjoy this giant petri dish of a pond, and all of the life that teems within, on, and around it.

Every day brings a new delight looking out our windows at the pond. The backyard is not the same tree-filled yard I fell in love with. I could stay focused on the loss of the beauty of the trees but that would not bring me joy. Instead, I continue to explore and embrace the new, more open backyard, that allows me to watch and photograph the wildlife in the pond so much more easily. We have planted a native river birch tree near the pond and perhaps we will plant another tree here someday.

I choose to embrace what is — I choose joy.

The Way The Trees Looked in the Fall on a foggy morning. The pond is barely visible on the other side of the willow tree.

“Mornings at Blackwater

For years, every morning, I drank
from Blackwater Pond.
It was flavored with oak leaves and also, no doubt,
the feet of ducks.

And always it assuaged me
from the dry bowl of the very far past.

What I want to say is
that the past is the past,
and the present is what your life is,
and you are capable
of choosing what that will be,
darling citizen.

So come to the pond,
or the river of your imagination,
or the harbor of your longing,
and put your lips to the world.

And live
your life.”

― Mary Oliver, Red Bird

On the log at the edge of the pond yesterday afternoon I saw my first painted turtle of the year, soaking up the afternoon sunlight.

Ah… springtime.

May you walk in beauty.