Neighborhood Ducks
May 10, 2008

Makes you wonder, doesn't it? Why else would an unusual sighting of ducks happen on the same morning Kathryn Carpenter is leading an early morning bird watching tour of Cuesta Park!

Kathryn started out around 8-8:30 and they spotted a page full of feathered friends. Here's her list. How many do you recognize?

dark eyed junco
house sparrow
crows
robins
mourning doves
mocking bird
barn swallow
another swallow, perhaps a violet green swallow
red tailed hawk (with crows harassing it)
scrub jay
oak titmouse
gold finches
house finches
chestnut backed chickadee
black phoebe
Not sure but possibly a flycatcher and a flicker
The resident blue heron was not around, perhaps it was in the park itself, where I saw it earlier in the week.

Then Kathryn went home and set up a table in her front yard with left over cider and donuts for neighbors to share.

Around 9:35 George Jacob (and probably others before him) spotted a mother Mallard Duck and her babies making their way from the end of Leona into the Bubb ball field and pausing near the CERT Trailer. A round of phone calls got Rick Van Mell, Marla Mulkey & Jeremy Thiel involved. Several calls to Animal Control & the police non-emergency number provided advice to just leave them alone. The old addage of Momma Knows Best seemed to apply.

By the time the pictures below were taken it was a little after 10:00. The crowd in Bubb field bugged Momma, so she rousted her brood of 10 and headed north. Out and across Barbara, then east to Nilda, and north again on Nilda.

She paused to rest at 1166 Nilda - directly across the street from Kathryn's table of goodies! So the small crowd that followed the little family had cider and donuts while they watched. Taking advantage of the humans being distracted, Momma D quietly marched her gang about two houses down and nestled under a thick hedge. That's where your photographer last saw them, wishing them well on the journey.

Isn't this a fun neighborhood!!!

Resting near CERT trailer	It's time to ...	move on.
Come on kids	Family portrait	Curious onlookers
Now on Nilda for a ...	rest stop, right across from ...	Kathryn Carpenter's goodies from morning's birdwalk!
Yummy!	Moving on down the street.