JUST DUCKY

It's been a long, hard week. I spent a lot of my time with a cup of coffee and looking out at Spring emerging in the backyard. Life cycles, life goes on. Somehow you pick up the pieces and move on. It's not without tears and without memories everywhere you go. You just forge ahead.

So, there I am watching the birds at the feeders knowing I have to take them down and clean them. It's time to put up the hummingbird feeder. I hear they are back in the city. It's too early but everything seems ahead of schedule. The darn rabbits come hopping into view. They are after the bird seed that fell from the feeder when the squirrel decided he could fly through the air above the cone that was preventing him from getting his fair share. He managed to dump the whole tray of food onto the ground and break the lines holding the feeder up. Normally I would panic and race to get the wet vac to suck it all up thinking about all of the weeds that would sprout from the ground. But with the darn rabbits, squirrels, and the resident chipmunks eating it up, I just smile and watch their antics.

I keep nagging my husband to get rabbit fencing to put around inside our board fence. The rabbits have chewed their way through holes and edges of boards in our fence as well as the heavy, wire-coated fence we had hoped would keep them out. And they still have their teeth!!!

Last week a pair of Mallards sailed in and took their merry sweet time investigating the yard. Dakota saw them and didn't take his eyes off of them until they flew away. He gave me a dirty glance as I would not let him out to get a better look. My last two Goldens let the chipmunks run over their paws but I doubt very much that Dakota would be so benevolent.

My eyes are drawn to a neighbor's 50 foot tree. It hasn't leafed out yet, so you can see the huge squirrel nests near the top from years past. My eyes are telling me there's an awfully large bird up near one of the nests. Surely it's not an eagle. That would be too much to hope for. I grab the field glasses and quickly focus them on the nest and bird. Good Grief I yell! It's a duck! I accuse my husband of lacing my morning coffee. Nope, it's really a duck. Further investigation shows a male Mallard sitting on the roof of the house. We've accepted the fact that every spring the ducks sit on the roofs of the houses all around the project. They seem to enjoy it and they are able to look over the whole neighborhood for possible nesting sites without being harassed by people or other wildlife. Every year pairs of Mallards fly into our yard and check it out. It's part of the Spring ritual that we enjoy. For two years we had a pair nest in our backyard. It surprised the heck out of me as at that time I had two Goldens who spent their summers out there in the pool. Mama must not have been worried about them. They were under a hedge of Russian olive shrubs/trees. It was so much fun to watch them follow mama along the fence, in single file, every day. The dogs never touched them.

Then a day would come when mama flew out of the yard and left the babies for the day. The babies, now quite grown, would continue to march up and down the fence under the olives. In the late afternoon mama would return and by the next morning they were all gone. Then one summer she didn't return. I refused to let myself think of what might have happened to her. We missed them and since that time none have found our yard acceptable. But they love our roof.

So, all week I have seen mama fly in and land on what seemed like a very small branch and look over the nest. Papa was always around somewhere. He too, actually landed in the tree a couple of times, but mostly waited on the roof. They have not been around the last day or two, so I figured mama had come to her senses and found a more stable environment. Then, this morning as I was turning off the TV and heading for my office, there was a large creature in the tree. I grabbed for the field glasses again and sure enough mama duck was by the squirrel nest again. However, papa duck was no where in sight. I have no idea where this is going to end, but it has been fun to watch them. Many couples have flown over the house but none have returned to our backyard.

Last summer we watched a family to wild turkeys walk through the neighborhood. I swore my husband to secrecy. I didn't want the neighbors calling for the men in white coats to haul us off. Now it turns out that other neighbors saw them too and while listening to talk radio one afternoon I learned that they are all over the suburbs around town. They seem to enjoy living among the neighborhoods and don't feel threatened.

One morning I looked out and saw a lynx/Bobcat crouching on the fence. Wildlife seems to be moving into the suburbs. However, when we built our house back in 1970, it was not unusual to see fox walking down the street and see that dear had jumped our fence and bedded down in the yard. So this is nothing new. Raccoons love the bird feeders too and we've had to cover our fireplace chimneys with caps to keep them out.

I don't mind all of the wildlife. It keeps me balanced and in tune with nature. It is only spoiled by the drone of cars and trucks on the freeway in the distance and those darn planes that have invaded the peace and quiet of our skies.

I hope the ducks find a safe place to raise their young. I wish it was in my backyard.