Coffee heat rising

urban ducks

The Ducks of Spring

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Okay, by popular request: DuckDuck and Her Swain:

Ducks Saturday enhanced

Good photo of the Duck Princess. The drake is much handsomer than he appears here. His head is quite a bright bluish green and the flash on his wing is totally crazy blue.

It’s really hard to catch them on a camera. They don’t seem to appreciate being peered at — and they spot you even when you’re peeking out a window at them. They don’t spook as easily as, say, a sparrow, but they’re not as bold as a mockingbird or a hummer. But cameras are definitely not their favorite company. 😀

Another sign of spring: the iris under the olive tree are blooming.

Iris 2016

 

Done Duck

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Well, Duck is now definitively gone. I’d say Ruby the Corgi had chased her off, but I don’t think that’s quite the case.

As the days have progressed on their summer trek toward Hell Central, Duck has spent less and less time on her nest. She’s been MIA for hours at a time, which can’t be good for the gestating eggs, even though it’s so hot they can’t very well be cooling off.

To the contrary: they’re probably overheated in there. Baked duckling, as it were.

Yesterday she was hiding under some other shrubbery, presumably where it’s cooler — it was 110 at 7 p.m., to give you a clue of what it’s like out in the backyard. Anyway, I needed to get the hose to keep a few potted plants alive, and when I opened the gate, Ruby squeezed in around my legs and shot around the pool, flushing Duck from her shelter.

Duck took off, and she hasn’t come back.

Oh well. Now I can have Gerardo’s guys trim those damn filthy palm trees.

That’ll be another $300 bill…