All I can say is it must be a good year for lilies. We saw these magnificent ones along the way yesterday.
I've never seen lilies in these colors before.
The one above happens to be growing next to someone's "bottle tree". I love what they've done with an old dead tree stump and some pretty blue bottles. Sue and I have been walking this trail for over ten years, and the bottles have grown over time...in numbers, if not in size.
Remember a while back I said we'd seen the ducklings and that there were only two left? Well, you'll be happy to know that we saw all four ducklings yesterday. Yay! We saw the mama duck and one duckling, and as we stood watching, the rest popped out of the bushes one by one. They practically mauled us looking for any Fritos or Doritos or Cheetohs we might be carrying. Mama duck hung back keeping a watchful eye on her brood.
They kept following us as we walked on.
So what explains the brood of two ducklings we saw on our last walk? We met a man feeding them when we came back the other direction who said there were actually two families of ducklings. He said the other family of mama and two ducklings had been larger, but that the nutria had gotten the others. He told us that the survival rate for ducklings is only about 60% in this area, if you can believe him. No reason not to, I guess. He also informed us that these are probably large enough now that they will survive.
That's all I have for you today. I'll be taking my camera with me to class today, and I'll be back tomorrow to tell you all about what I learned.
Have a super Saturday.
4 comments:
That's sad about the ducklings, I wonder how he knows that it was the nutria that got them. One more case of something that shouldn't be there upsetting the balance.
Those lillies are amazing - I've not seen them in those colors either.
So, you & Sue were the piper pipers of the ducklings! I thought that 2 of them seemed a bit larger than the other two, so 2 families makes sense to me. Nature is not always a kind mother, is she?
Those are vibrant lillies. What a neat way to liven up a dead tree! Glad Mama ducks take in orphans!
Beautiful lilies, and fun ducks. You have such interesting walks.
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