Stay or Fly?

[Silvers]

This could be a hunting pic but the PA duck season is long closed and what birds that are still here have some hard going. 12 degrees and wind chill of zero or so when our Kaiser and I went for our afternoon walk. There’s a nearby creek that’s almost totally frozen over, and I looked over the edge and saw about 12 “mallats” in a small hole in the ice. The creek has a lot of minnows and I often see mergansers there but rarely mallards and especially this late. I didn’t want to scare them off because the foraging is tough right now, and I backed off but they decided to book it anyway. These are cell phone pics and they’re not the best – sorry. First one shows some of the ducks walking on the ice to a hole a little farther upstream. Second shows them after deciding to fly off. Kind of symbolic for me today because I’ve been going back and forth on a decision. Symbolic things like this have happened before in my life when faced with indecision and usually they’ve shown what's proven the best course. Well anyway, here you go in the comfort of your home on a bitter day here in the northeast.

[Stan Hillis]

Thanks, Frank. Good reminder of how tough game sometimes has it through the winter. Them mallets should be down here. It's supposed to go to a "balmy" 11 degrees here tonight! What the heck is going on? Where is Al Gore's global warming when we need it?

SRH

[Gleedaniel13]

Hopefully, that season will end as soon as possible so that ducks there can have there normal life.