Interesting behavior displays at the local pond.

docbell · January 30, 2007

These were taken at a local park pond recently (while out feeding bread to the ducks & geese with my 2yr old). As is typical when feeding the ducks, it was very noisey- ducks squaking, geese honking..., but then suddenly it was dead quiet (you could hear a crust drop:rofl) - and all the ducks and geese cleared out of the open water, getting up onto the edge of the ice (it was like a lifeguard at the beach yelled 'SHARK'). Well there was no shark, only this guy cruising around.

Almost all the ducks cleared out, the only one that didn't was this brave (or stupid) merganser.

She did soon clear out though:

I initially thought this was some type of otter acting territorial, however after trying to identify him online, I now think it is a mink (any help with the id would be appreciated). After reading about mink, I don't think he was being territorial, instead I think he was looking for a nice meal of 'merganser under ice'. He never got a bird, but did come up with a crawdad once.
Speaking of crawdads, it was a bad day to be one (sorry here comes more pics).

In their typical thievery ways, the seaguls would sit on the edge of the ice waiting for one of the diving ducks to come up with a crawdad, then swoop in to try to snag it. (Is thievery a word :dunno).

Sorry for all the pics, they just all seemed to go together. There were some other interesting birds there, but I'll save those for another post. (Disclosure- these were actually taken on 2 different days, at the same spot though).

Thanx for looking, Kevin.

Comments/critiques always welcomed and appreciated.

dbaker1221 · January 30, 2007

terrific series & story

cdonovan · January 30, 2007

docbell wrote:

These were taken at a local park pond recently (while out feeding bread to the ducks & geese with my 2yr old). As is typical when feeding the ducks, it was very noisey- ducks squaking, geese honking..., but then suddenly it was dead quiet (you could hear a crust drop) - and all the ducks and geese cleared out of the open water, getting up onto the edge of the ice (it was like a lifeguard at the beach yelled 'SHARK'). Well there was no shark, only this guy cruising around.
.

Thank you for making me spit my coffee out

Could hear a crust drop!!!
HA-Larious!!!!

Seneca · January 30, 2007

cdonovan wrote:

Thank you for making me spit my coffee out Could hear a crust drop!!!
HA-Larious!!!!

You owe me a new key-board...mine has a thin layer of Maxwell Coffee on it. :puke1

Harryb · January 30, 2007

Outstanding set.

Gale · January 30, 2007

Excellent images and narritive.
I really enjoyed this.
Look foward to the next installment from "The Pond"

kdog · January 30, 2007

Gale wrote:

Excellent images and narritive.
I really enjoyed this.
Look foward to the next installment from "The Pond"

Ditto.

docbell · January 31, 2007

Thanx all for the comments, they are appreciated.
Sorry about the keyboards, cdonovan and Seneca. I'll, aaah, send out some new ones first thing in the morning.

Kevin.