And Then There Were Eight

Duck is tasty, just ask the French or Chinese. And if you can engage a Pike in a coherent conversation, he will also concur about the culinary merits of canard. At the beginning of the season, we see fresh families of ducks, usually with about nine baby ducks in tow. As the season progresses, the baby ducks dwindle down to about two or three. The pike swimming around the marina take their fair share. But kudos to this local mama who manages to keep her numbers high. In the middle of June she remains at eight. I count the ducks in this family whenever I see them swim by. By now, her small charges are almost large enough to avoid becoming Pike food.

Marina Life is for the Birds

I can count upwards of 20 birds in the picture above, taken while looking down onto my bow from the cockpit the other morning. And that's just the sparrows. Let's not forget about the geese, the ducklings and a random swan thrown in for good measure. I can assure you that 20 sparrows chirping 4 feet from your head through the hatch at 7am in the morning works better than any alarm clock on the market. Get the geese up in arms about something (it doesn't take much), and the cacophony grows even louder. H10, the swan, is new on the scene. Methinks he might be the offspring of George the surly swan. H10 is a young swan; you can tell by his brownish coloured head and the fact that he has been recently and unceremoniously tagged.