More than Mallards....

Just so you know...we do have more than mallards and wood ducks around here. Occasionally various domestic ducks find their way in. And male mallards are notoriously "friendly". So we have some interesting results.

ABC Wednesday - P is for Pink and PurPle Petunias

Please click the ABC Wednesday icon to see more participants' entries at Mrs. Nesbitt's Place!

Home Sweet Home

You've seen some of my wood duck and mallard babies. I thought you might like to see one of the wood duck nesting boxes. This one was built by our neighborhood "duck lady". She carves the duck head on the front. Some of her boxes have both the male and female heads. The 2nd shot shows the inside. There is a Plexiglas panel that enables you to see the nest without disturbing the eggs. It can be lifted to clean the box out after the hatching. We Inn-Keepers put cedar shavings in the box and when mom builds her nest, she adds soft down. Right below the hole (always football shaped) is a piece of hardware cloth. The ducks have a hooked beak and they climb up that wire and tumble out of the box when called out by their mothers at 24 hours of age. It is imperative that they fall ... at least 5 feet and up to 15 feet ... because the impact with the ground or water somehow jump-starts their little digestive systems. If they don't fall out within 24 hours, they can starve to death. It is incredible to see them ... when she calls, they come tumbling out of there one after the other and practically walk on water to get to her. In the last photo you'll see a vertical piece of wood near the top. This is what causes the box to tilt slightly forward when it's mounted on a post (usually on a boat dock or retaining wall, so they can fall into the water). We have 8 boxes within view of our deck in our neighborhood and it is great fun to watch them! If you look in the distance in the first photo, you can see a green box on a post at the wall of Buster's yard. Obviously, the subject box today was just posing for pictures and not actually available for occupation!

Odd Shots Monday -- Flying Fish

Sometimes you just click at just the right moment.......

Check out the rest of the entries for Odd Shots Monday.

Camera Critters Sunday

Camera Critters Sunday -- click and check them all out! I've spent way too much time this morning trying to catch photos of this guy. For the last 3 or 4 days, he has been tapping on my windows. We have 3 double windows and 2 sets of French doors facing our deck and he has tapped them all. Which has kept me hopping from window to window to window trying to anticipate his next appearance. When he perched on my turtle friend to rest, I just had to click for this Sunday's theme photo! It looks like he and the turtle are enjoying our view as much as we do!

Photo Hunt Theme --- Time

TnChick moderates a Saturday theme called Photo Hunt. This Saturday, the subject is "Time". Those of us who moved to the lake from more fast-paced cities (primarily Dallas/Ft Worth, it seems) have had to learn to adjust to a different pace here. It can be frustrating for "week-enders" but once you've settled in, you find that the pace here is much healthier! We call it "Learning to live on Lake Time". Now when we go to the big city, we can hardly wait to get out of their traffic and get HOME! This was taken with my new PDA/phone/camera, so I apologize for the quality. Thank you to D&C for sharing your home and dinner and decor!

Sky Watch Friday -- whew, no tornado here!

Reports of a tornado touching down near here at Canton this morning. I was blissfully ignorant, but went out side to take this shot right after I heard....the sun is already starting to peek out here. Hope everyone in the storm's path is ok!

Fly over to Wigger's World to see more SkyWatchFriday entries.