• bicycling,  fall season,  leaves

    Sunday Turkey Trot

    November 3, 2024
    Fallen leaves at the CSU Oval

    My ride to coffee this morning was an enjoyable 10.1 mile round trip. It was 38 degrees by the time I headed out the door, at 6:40 am. I’m enjoying riding enough that the cold has not deterred me from getting out there. Bundling up along with the exercise are a couple of good things for my health. Colors are still vivid in many places which brings on a smile. As leaves were falling like gold and yellow snowflakes it reminded me that it won’t be long and white snowflakes will replace them.

    Mallards on Spring Creek

    I stopped to spend some time at the small concrete dam and gate area along Spring Creek. The water was smooth, blues skies reflected in the water and I had the time to stop. Three mallards felt the need to get in the image so I let them.

    Sunday Turkey Trot on Spring Creek Trail

    Most Sunday mornings I will encounter walkers, their dogs and bicyclists, all using these wonderful hard surface trails. This morning I needed to stop because a bunch of turkeys were taking their time as they trotted cross the bike trail. They seemed to think it was all theirs. So I let all 13 in the group have the right of way. About 1:00 pm they wandered across my front yard, which is about 2 miles from where I took this image. I’ve never seen them this far in town. Do you suppose they are looking for a place to hide? Hope you had a good Sunday!

    Read More
  • Avian

    That Time of Year

    March 15, 2012

    Mallards at my Lake

    The mallard, or sometimes known as a “wild duck”, lives in wetlands, chowing down on water plants, and is gregarious, meaning it lives in flocks. You can always tell the male because of the bright green or blue head, while the female is a light brown. They form pairs in the fall but once eggs are in the nest the male will join up with the guys until molting season at which time his imperious urge rises for other females, even other species. Mallards are one of the few waterfowl who have adjusted to intrusion of mans elimination of their original habitat. Which means it will still be around long after man has disappeared. 🙂

    As an interesting fact, the Peabody Hotel in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee has maintained a long tradition of keeping one Mallard drake and four Mallard hens, called The Peabody Ducks, as a popular hotel attraction and as guests of honor. The Mallards are provided by a local farmer and friend of the Peabody Hotel and are rotated out and returned to the farm for a new team of Mallards every three months. This tradition has also been maintained and observed at the other Peabody Hotels in Little Rock, Arkansas and Orlando, Florida. These are not the Peabody Ducks but a pair hanging around my lake.

    Read More