I worried last week when the Passover Mallards failed to show up. But I guess they just got confused by those liturgical calendars -- some years Easter and Passover fall at the same time; this year they didn't.
At any rate, here's what's outside my desk window right now. This year they're evidently Easter Mallards.
As always, they'll plod hopefully around the soggy back yard for a few days, grazing under the birdfeeders on bits knocked down by the songbirds. Then they'll face facts, accept that this place is drying up, and depart to find some nice gooey marsh for nesting.
Maybe they are Greek Orthodox. It's Easter was Sunday, too.
ReplyDeleteI'd far rather see free-living Easter/Passover Mallards than the hapless chicks and ducklings that some benighted folks used to buy for their children as Easter gifts. (This is one custom I'm hoping is on the wane.)
ReplyDeleteAnd there's a low-lying wet spot at the Jesuit college less than a mile east of us (I call it "Lake Le Moyne") that regularly attracts ducks early in the season. I noticed as I passed by today that it too is already drying up, though.
Great! They are a bit of a seasonal tradition. A schhecyanu for the first mallard of the season???
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