Good Weather for Ducks

We've had good weather for ducks and quite a few have been hanging out on our pond, from Mallards to Canada Geese to these colorful Wood Ducks. This male arrived on our pond the morning of April 10 with his mate and, curiously enough, a female Hooded Merganser. Usually, a pair of Hoodies visit.
















Not long after the three of them flew off for who knows where, two pair of Common Mergansers arrived. We often see Common Mergansers on Agency Creek but not often on our pond. They seemed to be in high spirits, splashing and running across the water.




One female, however, did not always play friendly.



It was nice to have a bit of colorful bird distraction a few days before Johnny's spinal injection. We're hoping the injection will ease his sciatica pain. Johnny is very tired of not being able to do what he wants to do. The injection was a simple outpatient procedure, but nervous-making nonetheless. We may not know how much good it did for a couple of weeks.

Whether from the doctor-ordered inactivity of the first couple days after the injection or from the injection itself, his pain is less so far. Here's hoping. Johnny would love to hike with me on my Black Oystercatcher surveys and troop through the woods on my Dipper Surveys. Well, okay, so maybe he'd most like to build things as he's done all his life. The goat barn project and many other projects are waiting for his back to improve. Here he is doing what he likes best... roofing. He earned his spinal stenosis and bulging disks from all those years of roofing and building things.


But, as I write this, the sun is coming out and the weatherman is predicting sunshine for the next five days. Johnny is just in from bustling around with less pain than he's had in months. Spring may have finally arrived... both outside and in Johnny's step.