....on this day!
I drove to this space where 3 very large american back ducks hang out and I parked my car and got out. I then heard their telltale deep vibrating quack quack. They had come out of the water and were trying to lift themselves up on these rocks and were waiting for me. I do not know if they can smell bread from afar or they have keen senses or what to realize it was me to come feed them. I couldn't believe how they were at attention and waiting. They were all over me and very hungry it seemed....could barely hold them at bay though their feathers and underbody feel nice against my bare feet. The other ducks come closer when these three are upon me. They have to in order to get a chance at food anyway. I am always wanting everyone to get some so bread goes flying here and there. They make sudden lunges in whatever direction and in competition and sometimes they slip a bit over rocks and seaweed. I worry about their rounded breast and underbody getting bruised when they land. Plus a lot of people leave broken glass and other litter. A molting male mallard has now learned to ask and take bread from my hand from watching the abd's. I felt bad 'cause one of them acted like he had something lodged in his throat and kept moving it a certain way, probably hearty crust and I kept telling him to go and get a drink so it will slide down better. Those ducks are so cool.
Ok this visit also seemed to invite a singular ring bill gull and a juvenile herring gull (pretty sure that is what it was). They got a few bits too 'cause everyone counts. I couldn't believe how close they got...just a few rocks away. The juvie gull looked so cool....it's markings and colorings, pinkish legs and black eyes. Funny call too and it was neat how it and the other gull "spoke" to one another. It was a little "slow on the draw" when its food came its way.
(Yesterday I saw a cool bird which I am pretty sure was a Willet (their underwings are telltale) and funny long beak.)
Yeah so not a bird but a squirrel and the one who comes to my "bird feeder roof" pretty much everyday. I hand feed it out the window too. Today it was hungry and looking expectantly to the window, especially if I made a sound. It will eat what seems like a lot to me for such a lil thing and then lays its body out splayed for a rest. It is funny and it is also funny how they stretch their arms and body and yawn. So the roof was a "skinny chicken" today and my cupboard empty. Bread that had been tossed earlier had been rained on and then dried so it was crispy and stuck to the roof. You should have seen the critter using her teeth to break bread free and the sound it made. I sent what goodies I could find her way and she was well fed. When done she has taken to this new thing of doing a kamikaze jump from the roof onto a tree branch that swings greatly. It makes me nervous to see her do this.....
* laughs like crow, soars like eagle with vision of hawk, haunts like loon & lulls like nuthatch ....tickle tickle, feather has most powerful medicine of all...makes you laugh *
