The rain arrived right as I was ready to head out the door for my walk – nice timing Mother Nature! So, I had another cup of coffee and piddled around waiting for the rain to stop so I could head out. Since it was Sunday, I had some wiggle room for my walk and wasn’t just pegged into a drizzly morning trek, so I would get to stay dry. By mid-day the weather was just ducky – the sun was out and yesterday’s chill and breeze were gone. I headed out for my Sunday stroll in the ‘hood, because by mid-day the squirrels are kind of anti-social. They are not in hunting-and-gathering mode, but instead, they are back in their nests, having called it quits for the day.
I noticed a lot of people have their harvest and Halloween decor in place, but I didn’t take out the camera, as the scarecrows’ duds were a tad bedraggled from the rain and they were having a bad hair day as their straw was soggy. We do have a good week of weather ahead, so I hope to get a few squirrel shots as Council Point Park’s trees, reeds and bushes get their Autumn glow on.
I was at Heritage Park two weeks ago – it was a bright, beautiful and very hot day and by the time I left at 11:30 it was in the mid-80s. It was my last attempt at getting some photos of hummingbirds and butterflies before they head for warmer climes and I popped into the Community Gardens for one last peek as well. I’ll share those pictures in a future post, but today it is all about ducks.
Mr. and Mrs. Mallard.
As I mentioned in a recent post, I sure do miss the waterfowl at Council Point Park … I saw no ducks, geese or swans last Friday when I was there and, because I arrived fashionably late, there was no one to ask if they’d been around yet. I like going to Coan Lake at Heritage Park where the Mallards are everywhere – they are usually sleeping, preening, waddling about or paddling in this manmade lake and they are always good for a few photos. I liked this pair of Mallards who now have completed their moulting phase, so the male and female are easily distinguishable once again. Don’t they make a striking pair?
Their profile poses, in which they stood motionless for the longest time, suggested they were posing just for me; after all, I was the only human around. How I wished I had some corn or other treat to share with them, especially the longer they stayed looking like statues at the seawall. Often these Mallards plop into the water as soon as I approach them. The drake remained motionless as you see below and finally the hen pivoted around and gave me a shy glance as you see in the header image.
Birds of a feather flock together … some of the time.
I finally left my fine-feathered friends behind and moseyed to the other side of Coan Lake where I saw an interesting sight; in fact it was the first time I’d ever seen a turtle at this venue, but here were two of them, basking in the sun on some boulders, along with a female Mallard. If the Painted Turtle had not stuck out his neck, I’d have thought it was just boulders since they blended in.
They looked content, and, as I approached the trio from the other side to get some close-up photos, sunbathing seemed more important than dropping into the water for safety, so they stayed there, biding their time until I left.
I’ll be returning to this park again in a week or so, once the trees are ablaze in color. I follow Heritage Park Photo of the Day on Facebook, so I’ll be able to gauge the peak foliage hues at this quaint venue.
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
I love the way you bring us into your life with your comments. It is making me rethink my blogging a little. I think you highlight the whimsy and I really enjoy that.
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Thank you for saying that Amorina Rose … sometimes it strikes me that these critters view me as an annoyance, sometimes as a means to an end if I have treats and sometimes I think they look at me like they’ve never seen a human before. I’m happy you are enjoying my posts. This is a cute little park, a lot of historical old buildings and artifacts and the lake is in the middle, so there are plenty of people. That morning there were not many people there at the small manmade lake – probably because it was very hot, uncharacteristically hot for September 21st. People can’t swim there; it’s just for show and the birds. Usually the ducks bolt, but that day they were unfazed by me. Interacting with the critters (no matter what their mood) gives me joy. Wait til the Spring comes around again and the geese are there with their goslings … they know we walkers would never hurt their babies, but the display they put on, hissing and flapping wings, you’d thing we were terrorizing them. It is nice to see their fierce love and devotion.
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I think there is a secret code between all of the birds and animals. “Here she comes with the peanuts and camera…hold still!” I don’t think I ever noticed how beautiful the female mallard duck is until your picture. Nice shot!
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I think you’re right Diane. 🙂 I got there early because I hoped to see the guy who throws out all the corn. The Mallards flock around him when they see him toting the bag of corn and it’s a sight to see. I’ve seen him feeding them twice now. The Park allows him to do this but otherwise discourage feeding the geese and ducks as it brings seagulls, especially tossing out bread and crackers. You’re right, the Mallard female is usually quite drab and in the picture with the turtles you can see the spot of blue on the wing feathers that you can’t always see at a glance. I asked the pair to stand closer but it fell on deaf ears.
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Miss Linda…………………..all of our near 100 ducks and about 80 geese are gone to where they have to gather before the real cold weather gets here…………………………I noticed all of our walking paths and walkways are clear of goose turds!!……………………………………but today in the afternoon while I was trimming our garden patio for the winter……………………a flock of geese were swimming in the pond………………..hmm………Mr and Mrs Meany and her gang came to visit??
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Ann Marie – all those ducks and geese are gone … bet you miss them, just as I miss them at Council Point Park. They add variety to the morning walk. I have not seen a duck there since very early Spring – the ice was still on the Creek when I last saw any Mallards and the Canada geese were not in the water since they had their goslings in tow and were giving them swimming lessons. I don’t blame them, due to the quality of the water. Sometimes the algae bloom is thicker than other times; it’s gotten a wee bit better the last time I was there. I think your ducks and geese decided the weather was too wacky to hang around any longer; Mr. and Mrs. Meany and their offspring are happy – they can take over the entire pond again! I admit, just like you do, that it’s nice to step without checking your soles. I try to watch ahead so I can look around so no geese is a blessing that way.
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looking forward to the autumn shots!
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Peak time for SE Michigan will be mid-October. I hope to post some lovely colors if Mother Nature cooperates!
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Great shots! The ducks are beautiful.
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Thanks Kate – the Mallards are my favorite ducks.
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Love those beautiful turtle photos! Better get them now before the turtles all hibernate for the winter. We had “duck weather” at the beach this morning. Bill and I were out for a run. 5 minutes away from home it began to drizzle, then rain, then downpour! As we stood under the house catching our breath and drying off the deluge hit! We got wet, but not soaked and it provided us with a good, speedy end to our run!
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Thanks Laurie – the turtles nearly blended into the boulders, especially the larger one which I think was a snapper. They were huge weren’t they? I’m looking forward to reading your post about your trip and how you did with the walking each day. I was going to read it last night but it was already very late so I saved it for tonight. The weather has been wild and wacky like a roller coaster ride. No wonder you made a quick dash after a deluge of rain. Mike Posner made it to 2,500 miles last week and is out of Arizona and into Nevada now. He discourages any “guest walkers” due to the rattlesnakes and scorpions along the way – yikes! He does not want a repeat performance of the rattlesnake bite from Colorado. He says it is much more treacherous from here on in and still hopes to reach California by year-end.
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Ah…a perfect day, and great photos to prove it. They did appear to be posing for you!! I’ll need to revisit this post when we’re both sick of the winter snow.
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Thanks – yes they stood there the longest time and didn’t move. I wish the male and female could have stood a little closer. They looked like soldiers standing there. And no food was involved in these poses either. 🙂
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Nice – you chose a great day to find them and capture photos!
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Lovely little ducks, Linda.
Also, I saw a picture of a lighthouse in Scotland on Twitter that I need to figure out how to share with you. You need to go there!
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Thanks Pam – it was a real treat seeing them that day and especially the female that was posing with the turtles. As to the lighthouse, a local horticulturist on “The Gardening Show” which airs on WJR AM April through Labor Day, along with his wife, live in a keeper’s cottage at a lighthouse in Scotland all Winter. Dean Krauskopf’s wife Sharma Krauskopf has written a book (Amazon) about Scottish lighthouses and I saw this article she authored on why she enjoys the experience:
http://www.rampantscotland.com/eshaness/eshaness_lighthouses.htm
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Wow, that looks like a phenomenal experience (also lonely).
Here’s the photo, Linda. Hope it comes through./Users/pam/Desktop/IMG_2650.PNG
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Hi Pam: Yes I guess it would be lonely but it is a novelty for them. I cannot access the photo but thank you anyway, However … I remember you sent a Twitter parody about Greta Thunberg a few weeks ago and I could access that Tweet … my Twitter account is: https://twitter.com/oldshoeleather
I know if you want to share a photo via WordPress, you need to put the photo into your WordPress photo gallery and share the link that way – that’s another alternative.
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Okay I will try that, Linda.🙏
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Beautiful photos of the ducks and turtles! The sun really brings out their colors.
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Thanks Rebecca. Their plumage is all grown in from their Summer moult. I was excited to see the big turtles out sunning themselves – a real treat!
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Wow, I just love it when different species just get along with one another like this and seem so comfortable in each others company. If only us humans could get on with each other like this x ❤
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I agree with you Zena … I could not believe they were sitting right next to one another very companionably. I have never seen turtles at that park ever and I go there on a regular basis.
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