Persistent Beggars

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Someone Else Has Been Visiting in the Night

If you click on the picture, you can actually see the prints…

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Her Chin Is Sooooo Heavy

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Guess Who Stopped by for Dinner??

These are almost as good as fingerprints! Now if I could just get my mitts on those dirty little beggars…






Yes, they needed a bit of help from the corner beam of the pond to get down…




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The Return of Three

There were three mallards in the pond this morning, two drakes and a hen. Hopefully, Bob got a good shot.

Curtis Was Introduced…

…to the Curlys this morning. I spotted them from the window.

Dog-Shy

Bob reported that Glenkerry wandered past the pond and scared the Curlys off…

Still Shy

Between snoozes on the alarm clock this morning, I heard one or the other of the Curlys down in the pond. When I got up, I didn’t see them; under the deck, maybe?

Camera-Shy

Woke up early, and Bob wasn’t in bed; figured he had wandered down the hall, and rolled over, and there he was, looking out the window (not very nice to startle his wife like that)!

Turns out the mallard hen, Mrs Curly as we’ve taken to calling her (from the curly tail feathers on the mallard drake) (the same Mrs Curly from last year?), was in the pond, quacking insistently. All in good time, Mr Curly appeared from under the dock and joined her.

When I got up, Bob’s Nikon was out, armed with the big, long lens, but to no avail; by the time he got ready to go, the ducks were gone.

Ding, Dong, the Duck Is Back!!

Dustin walked around the corner down to the pond and scared the poop (you should excuse the expression) out of (our?) mallard hen!

I was hoping they'd be back this year.

Quacking About

Just as I woke up this morning, I heard an odd noise out the bedroom window; sounded suspiciously like quacking. Sure enough, the mallards (a pair of them) from the river were back in the big pond, paddling about like they owned the joint.

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The Wildlife Brigade

I looked out the bedroom window at the big pond this morning, and lo and behold, there were three ducks paddling around, two mallard drakes and a hen, undoubtedly from the river. This was a pair and a third wheel, according to Bob. Wikipedia has a very interesting article, with great photos, on mallards.

About the same time there was a whole herd (comparatively speaking) of deer lounging on the point, basking in the sun. From the bedroom, I could make out a couple of what seemed to be fawns; Bob reported there were several more deer, including a buck. I hope his photos turned out; stay tuned.

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Pondering Around

We went on the San Francisco Bay Area Koi Club’s annual pond tour yesterday. What fun!!

The first ponds we saw were at a place in Los Altos Hills. The first “pond” was more like a lake: 250,000 gallons! It had about 15? good-sized koi lazing around, and tons and tons of tiny ones, too. The next pond on the path, near the house, was the hospital/quarantine pond; not a tank, mind you, but a permanent installation. (I want one!) The “house pond” was on the back porch/deck. Lots of big koi, and lots of big rocks and ledges for them to swim over and around and under.

Our next stop was just up 280 in San Mateo. This house had a relatively small back yard with a in-ground swimming pool. They had a very nice waterfall/stream arrangement, down the side fence, into a gravity-feed arrangement to the koi pond next to the side of the house.

We had planned to visit the pond in Hillsborough, just up 280 from our 2nd stop; the ticket-taker in Los Altos Hills mentioned that that pond was not available, due to an emergency.

Instead, we headed over 92 and arrived at “the moat”. In this backyard, the waterfall was in the back corner, and the water split around an “island” where there was just enough room for a standing umbrella and a few chairs. The two waterflows met across from the waterfall, where the goldfish and koi live.

This was our favorite pond of the bunch! Such a clever idea, the noise level of the waterfall was just right; if we didn’t already have a pond, I’d be lobbying heavily for something along these lines. OTOH, maybe we can sneak one in somewhere…

The Inaugural 2004 Dock Sit

Springtime must be here; summer must be on the way…

Aaaaaaah!

Most pleasant it was, sitting on the dock with the Bear, a glass of wine, the Beards, and the koi in the pond! Even though it wasn’t a regular food day, Bob thought I should go ahead and throw some sticks; they were STARVED, of course!!

It got to 80° today…