Cypress knees advantage

Early morning on the bayou, algae and all!








Now a close-up of cypress knees!
This morning I found a mysterious, single duck egg just pretty much laying around. No ducks, male or female, in attendance, just one abandoned duck egg!

 

Addendum 3: Oh happy day! Success!

The saga continues--oh happy day, Mallard Number Three was allowed to join the close-knit group!! Frankly, I was delighted and relieved to see that Mallard Three was back in the covey, swimming guard over his future eggs, his future children. It was his right! First in, then out. Then demanding back in!

I went down below to work again in my garden yesterday. I heard them chatting away, swimming parallel along the bank toward my yard and landing. I couldn't see them because of the stand of trees, but when they swam past those and into the open--oh I almost whooped for joy. All four males and Mama-Duck-to-be! Three mallards and the White Duck. I wonder how the situation was resolved. The BLue Heron? A quiet agreement among gentlemen? Justice prevailed, nevertheless--or what seems like justice to me.

On Saturday, Third Mallard was part of the group, then not part of the group on Sunday. On Monday, he tried and tried and was rejected and rejected from rejoining the group. On Tuesday, he LOUDLY demaded his justice! If not with men, then with ducks! Oh happy day! On Thursday, he's back in!

Addendum 2: Try, try again, screeching and hollering!

Third mallard is still trying to reclaim his post as third/second/first mater with Mama-Duck-to-be. Yesterday, he made an effort to rejoin his group, but was chased away. Today (Tuesday), oh my goodness. That mallard was screaming and quacking and pitching a furor over his loss, his line of progeny. He rasied a ruckus today!!! He let everyone, both up and down the bayou, both animal and human, know that he was VERY upset with the chain of command. Still, the two mallards and Cheater White Duck adamantly deflected all his claims, his efforts, his ruckus. "Go on," they told him. "You Lose!" Even the Blue Heron got into the screaming match, in support of the third mallard. No matter. Third Mallard still did not get into the Circle of Life--the four. 

Know what Mama-Duck-to-be said about it all: "Whatever." What more could she say? She's just a female in a long line of females. That's the way of life for females in the wild and some in the tame.

Addendum: White duck has been accepted!!

I went down below late yesterday to work a bit more in my garden and there was the crew: Mama Duck and her three suitors/maters/fathers-to-be, including the white duck. They were nestled in the grass at the top of the low bank adjoining the bayou, snoozing.

I sat in the grass to watch them awhile, when out of my perepheal vision, I saw a third mallard swimming determinedly across the bayou. At water's edge he dipped out onto land and waddled and hopped onto the ledge to join the others. Oh no, one of the settled mallards said. Who are you and what do you think you're doing? Out, out, out!

That poor mallard tried and tried to join them, but no, the others were not having him. My question is: Was he one of the original three mallards who escorted Ms Duck on Saturday? How did White Duck displace him? Was he one of the fathers? Or an interloper?

I'm not a duck, privy to duck talk and maybe will never know. Oh how devastating to be rejected! Ducks! Interesting creatures!

Duck life

Down here on the bayou we have ducks, i. e. mallards and those white ducks. There are probably five mallard males to one female. I don't know the sex of the whites because males and females look identical (to me). During mating season--which I thought was over!--the mallard hen is courted and mated by as many males as other males allow. Typically, I've seen groups of three dominate and mate, then protect her until the ducklings hatch.

Today I witnessed five males, that's four mallard males and one white male, ahem, have a go at her. Since the white is not one of them, the mallard males (mm from here on) really tried to prevent this miscegenation. They failed. He held her under the water so long that I thought she would drown. But no, it all worked out. She swam for the edge, climbed up on a log and started preening and shaking her tail feathers. Oh, yes, she did. Each of the males gathered near her and also preened and kind of stood in the water, flapping their wings as if bragging. (All of this is human interpretation.)

I didn't get my camera until mating was over, so I missed that part. Here is a series of photos which tell the story....after!

 

Some of the most amazing flowers blossomed this spring in my yard and pots. These gorgeous lilies are one example. Their rich and vivid color are simply breathtaking, so much that I put this picture as my cell wallpaper and now here in a post.

I haven't gotten into the dirt yet (with its healing powers) because I have spent so long raking and bagging 50 bags of leaves and pollen droppings from the huge pin oak tree in the front yard. Then I had to go "down below" and pull out the layer of weeks covering my back yard below the deck and next to the bayou. I'm told that the bayou was once the Red River now diverted and reduced to bayou status. Whatever, I love it and the huge cypress tree that grows just inside the depths of the water.

I witnessed two sets of ducks--three males and one female in each set--mate in my yard. It wasn't pleasant but better than when they get her in the water and hold her head under. Such short unpleasantness produced a flock of nine ducklings. The second set of parents have not produced yet. An odd thing this year is the discovery of two abandoned duck eggs, one tucked in under some weeds next to a tiny cypress tree and the other in the open space of a cypress knee. I don't know what that was about. I also found the glass egg I set out last fall. It was tucked under a cement block along the sloping hill to the bayou. I have to walk uneven-legged on this yard. Mowing is quite the adventure as well!

There's a blue heron that fishes the banks and squawks and flies off when I appear. Two white egrets, but not together, also live and work along the banks. Birds do not have an easy life. In our neighborhood there are these half-breed pigeon/doves that mixed blood sometime back, creating huge breasts and ringed necks. Robins deck the front yard. One befriended me last year when I was still digging a new flower bed. I tossed him all the grubs I found. He blessed me (I think).

My vegetable garden is next. I'm a little late but I will plant accordingly.