Ed and Zelda Return

Ed and Zelda are back for the first time this spring! Zelda still looks about the same, but Ed - oh my how he's grown! You can't really tell how big he is from a photo, but he was by far the biggest mallard I've ever seen. I wondered if he was half goose, or some other breed of duck that looks just like a mallard but is much larger.

They like to hang out in the swale and eat whatever swims or floats around in there.

Since our neighbor's weeping willow came down in January 2008, parts of the swale are wet all year, while part of it fills only after a heavy rain, and sometimes it looks more like a creek - even has a current.

I enjoy watching the suburban wildlife who visit our backyard 'water feature,' sustaining themselves with the constant supply of food and water. With water there year 'round, I'm surprised we don't have more mosquitoes than we do in the summer. The bats seem to do a pretty good job keeping the mosquito population down, and I suspect the larvae also become food for some of the creatures who lunch at the swale.

Ed and Zelda Stop By For a Visit

Ed and Zelda live at the nursery where I work. There's a creek that runs through the middle and down the north side of the property, and Pop (of Mom & Pop, the owners of the nursery) being a serious bird enthusiast, has a number of bird feeders and a bird bath on the south side of the nursery along a driveway. So Ed and Zelda hang out a lot by the feeders, and enjoy refreshing swims in the creek. After their babies are mobile, they trot them out and show them off to us like the proud parents they are. Ed and Zelda aren't very afraid of us humans, since they're so used to us being around. We can get really close to them and the kids.

We have a drainage swale way in the back of our yard. After a heavy rain, the swale becomes a temporary stream. Now, with the weeping willow tree gone, the swale stays wet longer after a heavy rain than it used to.

Ed and Zelda have always enjoyed stopping by for a visit and a refreshing swim whenever there's water in the swale. I imagine they'll be stopping by even more frequently now that the willow is gone. Of course, once the kids are hatched, they stay closer to home for a few weeks.

Wednesday when I came home for lunch, I found them in our back yard enjoying an early afternoon swim. They'd taken off from the nursery late in the morning, and I was thinking they just might be here when I got home. Since our house is only a little over a mile (as the duck flies,) from the nursery, it only takes them a couple of minutes to fly over here. They were here to greet me when I came home. I don't mind them stopping by when I'm not home - they're like family after all.

A half-hour later when it was time to go back to work, they took off in the direction of the nursery. I wasn't surprised when I got back to work minutes later, to find them hanging out by the bird feeders. I guess they still believe that old wives' tale that you shouldn't swim after a meal or you might get a cramp and drown. So they came by for a swim at my place first, had some of their favorite appetizers fresh from the swale, then flew back over to the nursery for the rest of their lunch. I don't blame them for believing that old wives tale. They really are bird brains though.
It's ok if they're bird brains. We love them just the way they are.