The Mallards

This was different. This year, cleaning up the winter's mess of bird seed under the bird tree, we had this pair of mallards that are nesting in the beaver bog across the road. They came by every morning and every afternoon and scooped up piles of seeds. You can even see grass and dirt on the male's beak in the last photo. The hen was more black and blue than brown and blue as I usually see them. The male's legs were bright orange. He was very protective of his wife and paid attention to my movements in the window. When he saw me, he got between me and his wife. She paid little attention to me at all. The ground under the bird tree is now so clean you would never know there had been feeders there. The ducks, knowing there is no more food, have not returned for the last two days.

_/\_/\_