Today was an escape to beautiful and historic Heritage Park, a venue which never disappoints. I figured I’d trek around the track twice, after visiting the old village area to feed the ducks and take photos before it got busy.
The weatherman kept crowing that today was the last day of our trifecta of cooler days so “get out and enjoy it!” I liked the three-day respite, even though I really didn’t think it was all that cool today. In fact, the car registered 80 degrees outside around noon when I arrived home. Cool to me is 60 degrees … just sayin’.
The historical portion of Heritage Park sure is pretty and peaceful.
My first stop was Coan Lake to offload oyster crackers, treat the ducks and get a photo op … all in one fell swoop.
I was toting a new box of oyster crackers that I brought to feed the ducks (and the seagulls if the ducks were slow gobbling them up). The last time I was here was for the 5K run/walk to benefit the local food pantry, and before that, I spent much of my time trying to get a few shots of the elusive barn swallows which were darting here, there and everywhere around the covered bridge. Finally, you may recall, I discovered they had nests up in the rafters and each nest was filled with swallow chicks. It was my lucky day that I looked up and saw the chicks and their parents! (I confess I also was glad I looked up since there were multiple birds perched directly over my head just as I walked beneath them.)
As I neared Coan Lake, I broke open the oyster crackers to get ready to toss them to the ducks. But what was this scene? Another of the ducks’ benefactors had arrived just before me. It seemed as if a feeding frenzy was already in progress, and that episode changed the course for today’s blog post.
I stood back and observed, camera in hand.
Just like the squirrels who come running over to greet me when I start walking on the perimeter path, ducks began to surround a gentleman, first paddling over to the water’s edge, then clambering onto land, or waddling over from the nearby grassy areas. A few ducks even flew down from the sky. There are many ducks at this Park, but they are usually scattered around the lake, never concentrated in one place.
I soon understood why this guy was a duck magnet. He had a huge Ziploc bag of corn and was tossing it out onto the grass.
This was the scene I encountered just after I arrived.
After a few large handfuls of corn were scattered, the group began to multiply as more mallards joined the feeding frenzy.
By the time he was down to the bottom of the bag, the ground and nearby rocks were covered with ducks, their bills to the ground gulping down that corn.
I told this gentleman I might as well just hang onto my oyster crackers for next time. He laughed and said the ducks know him. He is there every morning because feeding the ducks just starts his day off right. I told him I know all about that warm and fuzzy feeling and that is why I make my daily foray to Council Point Park and the occasional trips to other parks on weekends. I, too, seek a nature fix and enjoy feeding my little buddies.
I said “so ducks like corn then – who knew?” He said it was actually cracked corn, easy for ducks to eat and digest and it was a treat for them. He said “if you leave your crackers and the seagulls don’t get ‘em, the ducks will have something to eat later when they get hungry.”
Based on this wisdom, I scattered the crackers on the lawn so my feathered friends could have a snack later.
Suddenly, he pointed to the wooden walk-out pier across Coan Lake …
… then told me the ducks are savvy, because in the afternoons people go on the walk-out pier with food, so naturally the ducks hang out over there after mid-day when there are more visitors at Heritage Park.
He also asked me if I noticed the ramp the Park installed in Coan Lake to make it easier for the ducks to get into the water.
I’d never noticed it before and told him this, adding “these ducks have a ducky life don’t they?”
We chatted about the weather, and ducks, nature in general, then back to ducks again, while we watched the mallards munching on their treats. By then, the group had finished all the cracked corn and had moved on to the oyster crackers (so they didn’t snub me after all).
We watched the mallards going up and down the ramp, sometimes at breakneck speed … coming down, they kind of slide into the water with a big plop.
Some ducks skip the slide, and just dive in headfirst.
It cools them off, but annoys the other ducks with the big splash. Me too – I jumped back in a flash so the camera didn’t get wet.
Of course, then their ritual is to shake and flip their feathers, much to the chagrin of the other nearby mallards.
Finally the treats were gone, so the ducks all headed into Coan Lake to cool off. There were ducklings playing hide and go seek, turning upside down, tails in the air, momentarily disappearing, then popping up somewhere else while Mama Duck anxiously looked on.
Meanwhile the temps were heating up quickly and I wished I could join those fine feathered friends in the cool water. The fellow duck feeder and nature lover and I parted ways and I completed a spin around the village, then off to walk the pathway around the entire Heritage Park.
I got five miles of steps on the pedometer, and many miles of smiles as well.
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
Dear “Miss Miles of Smiles”………………………………….I was smiling reading your blog today!
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There were so many ducks Ann Marie and they just came out of nowhere all of a sudden … the more he tossed out corn, the more ducks arrived. It was amusing to watch. I didn’t know they had a “ramp” for the ducks – I was laughing at that as I didn’t know they went up/down that ramp … they wait their turn too. How funny! Sometimes one gets pushy, but mostly they wait “in line” to go next. Glad you enjoyed this. I enjoy myself every time I go to Heritage Park. Wish it was closer and I’d go there every day.
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You got some cool photos! I love the duck ramp! 🙂
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Thanks TJ – glad you enjoyed them. It was a fun day – back to the heat and humidity again for both of us – ugh!
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I love this post, Linda. The antics of those duckies. The slide made for them. This is a water theme park for the ducks.
I am glad to read of a fellow duck lover who even says his day starts off right after feeding the ducks, who are familiar with him. It is like my day that starts off with feeding those strays.
I wish I had a lot of animals to feed though and no disapproving human eyes.
Glad you made the steps for today. I wish you could cool down in a swimming pool too.
Susie
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Hi Susie – it is always nice to meet a kindred spirit, and he was to the ducks what I am to the squirrels (at least what I was til they all return) … knowing their habits, their likes and dislikes. My friend Carol feeds feral cats, entire families, and shelters/feeds them through the long Winters which can be brutal where she lives in New York. We are repaid by their kindness toward us … somewhere in Heaven will be a place for all us animal lovers I believe. That duck slide made me laugh. I never noticed it there before. They were enjoying it immensely. It made my day! Stay cool Susie – we are back to a searing day of heat and humidity today, then a tad bit cooler tomorrow.
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Great pictures and story Linda. Cracked corn seems to be a favorite for many critters. It is part of the scratch mix we feed our chickens and if the chickens leave it on the ground we see many birds, squirrels, deer, and raccoons eating it.
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Thanks Ruth – I am glad you liked it. Heritage Park is a beautiful place – I wish it was closer to where I live, but a 12-mile round trip is not horrible and a good run for my car which does not get out enough.
I didn’t know about the cracked corn – thanks for enlightening me more. I am wondering if you can buy it with regular bird seed? We have a pet store about four blocks from here and they carry animal feed and hay – I’m guessing they would carry it. I would have to get some Rubbermaid containers to keep it in though as I don’t want to have little worms. When I fed the birds, I had the seed in three different-sized containers as I didn’t want moths. I could keep the oyster crackers for the Winter months (rare if I go, but when the water is frozen and snow is on the ground).
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Great post, sensational photography! 🙂
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Thanks Jan – I am glad you liked it. This Park is so beautiful, and on a sunny day, all photos come out with beautiful reflections, especially for the historical houses and buildings near Coan Lake. The duck feeding was just an added bonus!
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What a beautiful place and your pictures!😊
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Glad you liked them John. I was like you when you are lucky to be in the right place at the right time. I’ve been to Heritage Park maybe 10 times in the last year, but never the same time as this guy was feeding the ducks and I always go there first so I don’t have to carry around their treats. I really like the two ducks in the top picture. I took several pictures of them, but I like this one best.
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When you take pictures so must you have much luck to come in right time. I have waited for some birds for long time when I was out, but now days I trust to be lucky!😁 It’s so boring to waste time for nothing. I can’t understand some birdwatchers which can lie on the ground camouflage for several hours to get a little glimpse of a bird.😁
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I agree – I couldn’t sit around waiting too long either in case birds don’t show up. I just have to go with the flow – it is the morning or weekends to see birds and critters Now this guy said he is there every day – I’ve been to the Park about 10 times in the last year – I’ve never seen him, so I thought it was just lucky I arrived at the same time yesterday. And seeing all those ducks in one spot. Most of the ducks were young and did not have their colorful plumage yet … they all looked like females as the males just had a hint of their green head feathers – either that or maybe they were moulting now that I think of it … but if you notice, they were all the drab color of females. The ducklings were so cute, but most of the pics I took of them, they looked like dots in the water – one picture of the two with their mother came out okay. They were so playful … it made me smile watching them.
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Aww what a great way to start the day!
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I thought so too – apparently he does this every day – I’ve been there plenty of times, but evidently not at the same time as he feeds them.
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Now up here we’re told not to feed the birds bread as it expands in their stomach and then they don’t get enough of what they need so I guess corn would be a good alternative to that. Have you been told that down there too?
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We have been told that bread was not good as well – the gluten in the bread messes up their digestive track and has no nutritional value. We are told to give them pieces of fruit and they love grapes.. But I understood crackers were okay, whole grain seedy ones especially, since they were air and not doughy and gummy like bread. I use the oyster crackers if I am at the water, it floats on the water so they can find them. I would buy the cracked corn to use as ground feed though – I had never heard of feeding them cracked corn before. Ruth Soaper, one of Anne Mehrling’s followers and now we follow one another, read the post and said they feed it to their chickens mixed with their feed and what the chickens don’t eat, the birds and raccoons eat.
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Oh cool that you found a good alternative in crackers. I hadn’t heard of the cracked corn either!
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Cracked corn would work on grass or pavement, but at least the oyster crackers float and don’t get soggy. Sometimes the ducks are in the water – so I can feed them there and get a few pictures of them at the same time.
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Perfect!
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You took a ton of beautiful photos!
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Thanks Anne – I had fun taking pictures this weekend … cooler weather and no rain for a change. Sunday was a beautiful sunny day and Heritage Park is just gorgeous with its historical village and the man-made lake … all the ducks just complemented that setting.
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He almost looked like he would fall in Wayne. Then suddenly he must have found his fish and went for it with the big splash and all you could see were his colorful feet under the water.
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Heritage Park showed its beauty in your pictures.
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Thanks Anne – it is a beautiful place to visit. I don’t know what took me so long to “discover” it.
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That has been remedied, thankfully.
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usually when you see any bird with it’s bum to the sky,it’s because they are feeding on something on the bottom.
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Very good photos and interesting post🙌
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Thanks Sharon – I am glad you enjoyed it.
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You’re welcome dear
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Amazing pix!! That man = the Pied Piper of ducks!!
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It was great watching him and his “following” converge.
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I absolutely adore ducks! Looking at these photos just makes me happy, perfect before bed. 🙂 xxx
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Me too and a fellow blogger who is a photography in Sweden, came upon six just-hatched ducklings three weeks ago in a pond near his home. It is a manmade pond with a fountain in it and he has been documenting them nearly daily since he discovered them. The one little duckling is big for his britches and he has been chasing the adult mallards away from him, mimicking his mother’s actions (John has some pics of his mother doing the same thing). If you look at this post, and then go forward, you can watch them getting bigger. He writes his posts in Swedish and English … this is the day he found them:
https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/76726927/posts/1941988096
And this is the last post yesterday:
https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/76726927/posts/1968382377
Enjoy!!!
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I hope you enjoy those blog posts of the ducklings Heather – they put a smile on my face every time I see their pictures, the bolder they get … the more smiles. I love the woolen donkey Dizzy. I collect teddy bears myself – the collection has nearly run me out of my bedroom and they are now in other rooms as well. That’s okay, their cute faces make me smile.
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I love the blog posts! Thank you so much for sending the links to me. All of the photos are just so beautiful, and the amount of detail is just wonderful. 🙂 And Dizzy said ‘hi’, we would love to see a picture(s) of your teddy bears if you have any! Even though Dizzy said you should have a donkey in your collection somewhere. 🙂 xxx
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I knew you would love the posts – every day John stops by there – he is hoping that by the time the pond’s fountain is shut down and the water is drained that the ducklings are ready to fly on their own. He says it takes about sixty days and so it is cutting it close as he discovered them on July 30th, and just a couple days old. He says if it gets cold then he will ask the people to hold off shutting down the water until the ducks are ready to leave on their own accord or look into rounding them up and depositing them in a natural pond close by. I do have pictures of my bears in groups (OMG) … there are 52 of them. I will send them to you tomorrow or later today – I am working on a Brief today that must be filed tomorrow and I popped over here for a breather. Don’t tell Dizzy, but I don’t have a donkey … 🙂
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Aww, we can’t wait to see your bears. 🙂 I won’t tell Dizzy about the lack of a donkey. 🙂 xxx
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🙂 I won’t tell either – my boss is feeding me the Brief one page at a time … thank goodness it HAS to be filed tomorrow. My bears have encroached from my room and into my late mom’s room, the den, … you name it and bears are there. A very small house and I was allergic to stuffed animals as a child, so I couldn’t have any, but I had allergy shots for years and one day my mom and I were shopping and she said “why not get this cute little bear for all the ones you missed when you were little?” (I think in later years she may have lived to have regretted that sentence.) I will get your e-mail address from our comments if that is okay with you. I got Jennifer’s address that way too when I wanted to send her a “side message”. I wish I knew your name?
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Thank you so much for the lovely pictures! 🙂 I absolutely love that it all started with your mum saying to get one little cute bear, and it turned into a whole massive family of them. 🙂 I think they’re amazing. 🙂 xxx
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I am glad you enjoyed looking at them – they do make me smile when I see them. It was around this time of year that I got the first one – it was “back to school time” (even though I’d been out of school many years) and there was this cute brown bear and he had a shirt on with an apple on it – the apple said “Boswell, Teacher’s Pet” … he was cute and my mom got it for me … the first of many more. 🙂
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And it’s Heather. 🙂 xxx
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Thanks for telling me Heather – I asked Jennifer as well – my name shows up automatically.
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I think I just come up as Dizzy the donkey, which I now think could sometimes be abit confusing… 🙂 xxx
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No, because I just thought you were using that name – my name only comes up as “lindaschaubblog.net” so it would appear my name is “Linda” … I did change it to a “dot com” address that uses the whole name of the blog, but I decided to keep the “lindaschaubblog” as it had a nice ring to it and I didn’t want people to get confused if I changed names.
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I enjoyed seeing your ducky pictures, especially the babies. I won’t see duck babies for another few months around here!
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I never saw any baby ducks at Council Point Park this year – unfortunately the brush covers the view of the Creek and they are so small that they are hard to see. I really would love to see cygnets … I heard they were down at the Detroit River in a nearby park, but we had so many rainy weekends that I never got down there and if you don’t get there before bass fishing begins, you can’t get near.
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I like that “many miles of smiles as well” comment! Oh, those baby ducklings are so cute. Wish we could see some green grass soon instead of this dreaded snow.
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Thank you Joan you will have many miles and smiles too, as you were really enjoying your regimen until the “dreaded snow” … the ducklings are so sweet and last year I hoped to see swans with their cygnets, but we had one rainy weekend after another … total days of rain and I can’t get to the place where many swans have their families during the week. Hopefully this year in Spring will be better … it is just brutally cold here and tonight a wintry precip and they are calling for people to be careful as hazardous roads and an all-day rain tomorrow, then colder. No walk in the cards for a while. I went to bed last night … I logged off to eat something, then return to Reader and Comments … I have been trying to stay off the computer for long periods to see if it would help my arm/shoulder, and decided to go to bed instead … but I wake up 1/2 dozen times a night .. the pain seems worse at night and that is what the articles say too. This is despite putting on Tiger Balm and taking Tylenol which I was/am reluctant to do – don’t like taking any meds, even OTC, except vitamins – I wish I knew the source of this – grrrrrr.
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Does it seem better if you rest it more and type less?
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Well, I think I am holding my arms up in the air at an unnatural angles to and I wonder if that is creating the problem. I spent last weekend re-arranging stuff in the kitchen and it still didn’t help.
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