Every Spring a pair of mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) temporarily makes our yard their home. There is a small creek at the bottom of hill in our backyard. In the spring it has sufficient water flowing in it for mallards to float around on it. It usually dries up at some point in the summer but mallards find it a comfortable place to hang out in for a few weeks.
The mallards will often come up to the top of the hill and wander around near our house and garage. If I’m lucky, I’ll get a photograph or two of them. Having keen eyesight, they are quick to spot me, even when I carefully peak through a window.
On Thursday, I saw a hen and drake eating corn near one of our critter feeding stations. I quickly grabbed my phone but they, having seen me, ambled away before I could get a good closeup photograph of them.
